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KINDERGARTEN 
ACTIVITIES 



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BY 



KATHARINE BEEBE 



AUTHOR OF 



"Roger and Rose" 

"Home Occupations for Little Children 

Etc. 






Akron, Ohio 

The Saalfield Publishing Company 

NEW YORK 1904 CHICAGO 



LIBRARY of CONGBESSi 


Two Copies 


Received 


NOV 30 


1904 


Copyriirnt 
1 CLASS eu 

1 ^o^% 

\ COPY 


tntry ^ 
XXc. Nui 

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LBn4f 



Copyright, 1904, 

BY 

THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Introduction - - - - - - -7 

Chapter I. — Before School - - - - 11 

II. Calendars - - - - - 24 

' III.— Music ------ 31 

IV.— Stories ------ 35 

v.- Songs and Games - - - - 42 

" VI. Pictures ------ 54 

' VII.— Sand ------ 65 

VI!I.— Cutting ------ 73 

IX. - Construction Work - - - 80 

X - Celebrations - - - - - 94 

XL— Christmas Work - - - - 103 

XII. - Gardening - - - - - 115 

XIII — Excursions - - - - 120 

XIV — Intervals - - - - - - 129 



Introduction 



IN a recent examination given to kinder- 
gartners, one of the questions asked 
was: ''What activities^ outside of the 
use of the Gifts and Occupations, do you 
find of value in the kindergarten f With a 
few exceptions, this question was very in- 
sufficiently answered. ^' Music, marching, 
songs, and games,'' was the most frequent 
response. This seems strange, in view of 
the fact that kindergartners have been con- 
stantl}^ improving their methods and giving 
to each otlier the results of accumulated ex- 
perience. Every director, out of her own 
originality and inventiveness (powers 
which Froebel's system is bound to de- 
velop in her as well as in the children) , has, 
during her time of service, been adding to 
her store of tried and proven kindergarten 



activities. These have been passed on to as- 
sistants and volunteers, and by them to 
other directors, until every graduate has,* or 
should have, at her disposal, in addition to 
her training in the use of the Gifts and Oc- 
cupations, a very wealth of resource. 

In each monthly meeting of the Chicago 
Kindergarten Club some few years ago, ten 
or a dozen members, who were dealing with 
some practical aspect of the kindergarten 
work, gave to the club the help of their ex- 
periences, methods, and resources. None of 
us felt that we could afford to miss a single 
one of those meetings. No one could come 
away from them without having added 
treasure to her store. All gave gladly and 
all received thankfully. 

The same process, on a smaller scale, takes 
place in Evanston, Illinois, where every 
fourth Friday the directors and assistants 
of the public kindergartens meet to go over 
in detail the work of the coming month. The 
subjects for consideration are agreed upon 
when the outline of the year 's work is given. 
At each meeting every one present, from the 
supervisor down to the newest assistant, 
gives whatever she has on the subjects to be 



studied, used, or touched upon. The result 
is a delightful morning of the freest possible 
discussion, and a wealth of material from 
which the programs of the different groups 
are made out. Tliis includes music, songs, 
stories, talks, experiences, games. Gifts, Oc- 
cupations, and miscellaneous activities. 

As a grateful acknowledgment of the 
gifts of this sort which the public kinder- 
gartners of Evanston have received from 
others, we desire to extend to our fellow- 
workers some of our accumulated results. 
That is, we want to put at their disposal 
those things which we have tried and found 
good, outside of our work with the Gifts 
and Occupations. We must not be under- 
stood as disparaging the technical kinder- 
garten material, however ; for we flatter our- 
selves that we occupy the safe middle ground 
in these days when some of our confreres 
are asking for the practical discontinuance 
of the Gifts and Occupations, while others 
contend that only these should be used by the 
true disciple of Froebel. We use both Gifts 
and Occupations throughout the year, find- 
ing in them for the children the development 
claimed by Froebel; but we also find what 



seems to us as real a development through 
work with other material, work which is to 
the child life itself, and which helps to make 
the kindergarten a natural, healthful, 
child 's world. 

We shall not try to tell how we do these 
things, but only what other things we do,— 
knowing that the average kindergartner's 
training and inventiveness will help her to 
ways, means, and details. 



CHAPTER I. 

BEFORE SCHOOL. 

WE SAY ^^ before sclioor' in our kin- 
dergartens because they are a part 
of the schools whose names they 
bear. We have the children for one year 
only, from five to six years of age, and so 
feel that we must in every way economize 
and use to the best advantage the time at our 
disposal, which is entirely too brief for all 
we want to do. Ostensibly kindergarten 
opens at nine o'clock. Really it begins at 
twenty minutes of nine, when the big doors 
are opened and the children are allowed to 
come in. We regard this twenty minutes as 
one of the best *^ periods" of our day, for 
our work is so thoroughly and carefully pre- 
pared beforehand that when the children 
com.e flocking in we are as truly theirs as we 
are after the nine o'clock bell rings. 



12 Kinder gart €71 Activities. 

We get very near them in this 'M3efore 
school ' ' time. We become really acquainted 
with the shy ones ; we wash, brush, tie, and 
pin xvp the disheveled ones ; and Ave play with 
the riotous ones, helping them thereby to 
keep within bounds. Each of us makes a nu- 
cleus of herself, so to speak, every teacher be- 
ing the center of a group which is drawn to 
her by a very natural process of human grav- 
itation. We add to our attractiveness in as 
many ways as we may, and some of these 
ways I shall try to set forth, ho])ing that 
they may prove suggestive, at least to 
younger kindergartners and to those who 
are far away or isolated from the centers of 
kindergarten thought and inspiration. 

First there is our doll, the beloved Daisy 
Ellen, who ap^Deared in one of our kinder- 
gartens many years ago and became an im- 
mediate favorite on account of her unbreak- 
able head and soft huggable body. She was 
young then, only a year old, and had to take 
naps in her hammock while we worked. In 
May of her second year she was fitted out 
with a coat and bonnet, and a satchel just 
large enough to hold her nightgown, so that 



Kindergarten Activities. 13 . 

she might make a round of visits among her 
friends and admirers. Eyery noon, for 
weeks, slie bobbed gayly down the street 
with some ecstatic host or hostess. In fact, 
she was entertained so enthusiastically and 
constantly that when the last of June came 
she was almost in shreds. 

After the kindergarten had closed for the 
year, she was allowed to go to California 
with one of the children who loved her, in 
the hope that she might at least last for the 
child's diversion until the journey's end. 
Whether she did or not we never heard ; but 
when the kindergarten opened in the au- 
tumn, immediate and pressing were the in- 
quiries for Daisy Ellen. Searching ques- 
tions were asked by visiting ^^First- 
Graders," and over and over again in re- 
sponse to the statement that she had gone to 
California for her health, came the persist- 
ent wail: '^But ivhen is she coming back?" 

We straightway took counsel together and 
decided to get one of the printed dolls just 
then beginning to be advertised, and invest 
her with Daisy Ellen's memory and many 
.virtues. Old friends found the new Daisy 



14 Kindergarten Activities. 

Ellen just as good to squeeze as her predeces- 
sor had been, and the new children soon 
learned not only to love her but to admire 
her exemplary conduct and to respect her 
knowledge of kindergarten lore. 

Daisy Ellen is a regular attendant on the 
morning circle and her gestures are always 
energetic and appropriate. To be sure she 
is apt to be careless during the prayer, but a 
friendly hand often shoots out to the back of 
her head and holds her kindly but firmly in 
a devotional attitude. 

She no longer takes naps in the hammock. 
The kindergarten carpenters have made her 
a chair, and also k table which is marked off 
in inch squares ; and she does her work with 
the rest. She has a sled, too, made of a 
starch box, in which the children draw her 
and in which she coasts in the ''before 
school" time. At the present writing she is 
having a bedstead made out of the tray of an 
old trunk. The tray stands on four stout 
legs and is embellished by a graceful head- 
board made of a box cover. You need not 
laugh ! It is all even and straight ; and after 
the whole is painted a cheerful green it is 



Kindergarten Activities. 15 

going to look very well indeed. After the 
bedstead is finished, we shall make a mat- 
tress, pillow, sheets, blanket, and patchwork 
quilt. Next year we are going to make her a 
wardrobe, with a door which will open and 
shut on leather hinges. There will be a shelf 
and dress hooks inside, and this wardrobe, 
too, will be painted green. 

Daisy Ellen is a simply dressed child. She 
wears a long-sleeved gingham apron over a 
red and black plaid dress. She is not har- 
assed by flopjoy bonnets, scratchy bows, 
clumsy sleeves, and big collars. She does 
not have to be cautioned every five minutes 
not to soil her clothes— although, of course, 
she is expected to be reasonable. She wears 
real stockings, and shoes which were bought 
at Mr. Michael Kelly's shoe shop. Mr. Kel- 
ly had a little boy in the kindergarten at 
the time of the purchase and therefore was 
much pleased when the whole troop of chil- 
dren accompanied Daisy Ellen to his shop, 
and breathlessly watched the fitting. The 
shoes were bought with money taken from 
the kindergarten bank, which this year was 



IG Kindcnjarten Activities. 

opened again that the clear child might have 
a pair of rubbers. 

She has had a birthday party and a 
Christmas tree. Slie has gone on every visit 
and excursion undertaken by the kinder- 
garten for the last six years. She occasion- 
ally spends a morning in the First Grade 
room and once in a Avhile goes to visit the 
sick. She has a number of cousins who 
closely resemble her, for in this particular 
school district many small maidens, have 
besought Santa Claus to bring them a doll 
^^ just like dear Daisy Ellen !" 

Over and over again it happens that a 
child who finishes his work before the others 
asks to go and ^^ visit with Dais}^ Ellen" ; and 
it is a common sight to see the two gravely 
looking at a pictvire book or playing blocks 
together. 

So in the ^^ before school" time the first 
cry is for Daisy Ellen; and happy is the 
early bird who gets the coveted worm. It is 
etiquette among us, however, to let some one 
else hold her at circle time, if we had her be- 
fore school ; and when we want to be particu- 
larly nice to a friend, neighbor, or visitor, 



Kindergarten Aetivities. 17 

we surrender her for a time to other welcom- 
ing arms. Many dolls eome. to visit her. 
These are welcomed, admired, and appre- 
ciated by teachers who really have some idea 
of how to play with dolls. 

In another of our kindergartens is^ a 
cousin of Daisy Ellen's whose name is 
Jimmy. He is only a baby in long clothes 
as yet ; but when he is two years old he will 
wear Russian blouses, and, later, go into 
trousers. He has a lovely afghan made of 
many pieces of ''truly weaving" sewed to- 
gether. 

In a third kindergarten is a doll named 
Jerushy. She is not as generally popular as 
Daisy Ellen, but is dearly beloved in certain 
Italian and African circles which she fre- 
quently adorns with her presence. She 
seems especially adapted to settlement work, 
but will probably extend her sphere of in- 
fluence in time. 

It is during the 'M^efore school" period 
that toys brought by the children who wish 
to share their pleasures and treasures with 
their mates are enjoyed. Instead of being 
placed in the middle of the circle and per- 



18 Kindergarten Activities. 

functorily noticed after nine o'clock, they 
are examined, sympathetically appreciated, 
and played with. We have had no end of fun 
with various mechanical toys, for these give 
great joy to the poorer children whose own 
playthings are of the cheapest. The proud 
owner greatly enjoys this added ^^ something 
to do ' ' with a possession which soon reaches 
its limitations if played w4th alone. Espe- 
cially do we welcome toy animals— dogs, 
cats, horses, cows, and woolly sheep; and, 
letting the kindergarten imagination play 
around them, we are often able to send them 
home with an added value, making them for 
their owners more what they should be— 
centers for widening circles of imaginative 
plays, points of departure rather than ac- 
complished ends. 

To one of our kindergartens a friend has 
given beautiful sets of toy animals with 
which we have had so many delightful plays 
that we find ourselves wishing for a further 
endowment of toys. We hope little by little 
to accumulate an outfit for educational use 
of housekeeping implements, such as pails, 
brooms, dusters, brushes, dishes, tubs, irons. 



Kindergarten Activities. 19 

and a stove. We also want a large wagon, 
carpenters' tools, garden tools, and wheel- 
barrows, all of wliicli we have faith to be- 
lieve will be ours in time. The dolls' lie- 
longings we prefer to make, as well as other 
toys of which we shall speak later. 

We have a set of ragged story books on 
which frequent hands are laid and we are 
often besought to ^^read this one." So again 
and again we read the dear old tales and 
verses to children who have them at home 
and never tire of them, as well as to chil- 
dren who only get them from us. This does 
not in any way take the place of the regular 
story telling ; it is only doing in a very sim- 
ple old-fashioned way what mothers do, 
would like to do, or should do, at home. 

We have found this twenty minutes the 
most profitable time for examining together, 
in less formal fashion than is possible in the 
circle, the mam^ outdoor treasures, speci- 
mens, and curiosities brought in. Without 
any restrictions, except an occasional cau- 
tion in regard to polite consideration, we can 
crowd together to see, taste, touch, or handle 
our seed pods, birds' nests, wasp and hornet 



20 Kindergarten Activities. 

Homes, leaves, nuts, grains, evergreens, 
stones, twigs, and flowers, frogs' eggs, and 
tadpoles. We can take in our hands the bits 
of wool and cotton, the tiny loom, the woven 
cloth, the spinning w4ieel, and the other ob- 
jects which are loaned to us from time to 
time. 

It is before school that we make our maple 
syrup, and churn our butter; that we most 
comfortably thresh our grain, do our mill- 
ing, and l)ake our whole-wheat cakes, for 
while the one necessarily small group ac- 
tually employed is at work, and the limited 
number of possible spectators absorbedly 
looking on, the other children can have the 
freedom of the black-board, sand table, pic- 
ture books, and other attractions while wait- 
ing their turn. 

Sometimes we make an ^^ object picture" 
on a table or window sill, using such ma- 
terial as the kindergarten affords, supple- 
mented by suggested loans from interested 
participants. We evolve kitchens, dining- 
rooms, bedrooms, and parlors, barnyards, 
stables, sheepfolds, x^^^'tures, and camps. 
Sometimes we erect a telegraph line or oper- 



Kindergarten Activities. 21 

ate a telephone system. We have all sorts 
of blocks which at opportune times are con- 
veniently placed for free building. At other 
times there are tools and- bits of soft wood 
for spontaneous carpentry. 

Pets are often brought in, and we have, in 
our time, entertained dogs, cats, pigeons, 
rabbits, and white rats. Once we had hom- 
ing pigeons sent to us from a distance, and 
we had the exciting pleasure of setting them 
free r.t nine o'clock exactly, and receiving 
word from the owner the next day regarding 
the moment of arrival at the home cote. For 
many rsasons these brief visits from our 
animal friends have l:een more satisfactory 
th:in o;ir attempts at keeping pets, although 
we have raised young canaries and had 
doves, fish, turtles, and cats of our own. 
These, of course, mu^t be fed and cared for. 
"We also look out for the sparrows during 
the winter and feed certain ri^eons that 
have learned to look to us for frequent 
treats. 

Then we have housework to d ^. We wash 
everv Monday and iron every Tuesdav dur- 
ing the first weeks of kindergarten, and later 



22 Kindergarten Activities. 

at longer intervals— European fashion. Our 
kindergarten handkercliiefs, our paste 
cloths, paint cloths, and cleaning cloths, we 
can in this way care for ourselves. There is 
much dusting, sweeping, and cleaning which 
small hands can do and do well. An equip- 
ment of overalls, aprons, and sweeping cap 
adds much to the interest of these occupa- 
tions. We have, moreover, our plants to 
care for, the dressing rooms to keep in order, 
and, in the sirring, our outdoor garden work. 
Now we should find it impossible to do all 
of these, to us desirable things in addition 
to our regular work on the circles and at the 
tables, if we did not do them l)etween half 
past eight and nine o 'clock. We have found 
it not at all impossible so to arrange our 
time that we are free to do this ^^ before 
school" work and, looking back over the re- 
sults, we are more than convinced that it has 
paid us for our extra effort. Of course, we 
do not have all the children every morning. 
Some few early birds are always on hand, 
but the others vary in attendance according 
to home exigencies. But anv particularlv de- 
sirable activity is kept up long enough to 



, Kindergarten Activities. 23 

give every one a chance, and the very fact 
that these morning groups are small and 
fluctuating gives us all the better opportun- 
ity for carrying on the various plays and ex- 
periences which I have tried to describe. 



CHAPTER II. 

CALENDARS. 

THE kindergarten calendar is always a 
source of interest to the children, and 
goes far toward making their very in- 
definite notions of time more definite. They 
learn the days of the week, the months of the 
year, and learn to realize with more or less 
completeness the interval of time which must 
elapse between a present da}" and a future 
event by means of the symbols which are 
added to the calendar daily. ' ' How long be- 
fore Christmas r' asks little Mary. '^ Three 
weeks," is the answer jierhaps. This does 
not convey any very clear impression; but 
when we show her twenty stars and add that 
after we have pasted these on the calendar 
it will be the day l^efore Christmas, Mary be- 
gins to understand. 



Kindergarten Activities. 25 

Our calendars vary from month to month 
and year to year as different ideas and in- 
spirations seize us. For a September calen- 
dar one of the teachers cut silhouette pic- 
tures of 

The mother so kind and dear, 

The father so full of cheer, 

The l)rother so strong and tall, 

The sister who plays with her doll. 

And the baby, the pet of all, 
and pasted them on a gray background. The 
symbols added from day to day were the 
implements of the father's trade, the moth- 
er's household utensils and the children's 
toys; and these were placed in the squared 
spaces prepared below the picture. 

One October calendar consisted of a lar je 
sheet of gra}^ cardboard on which v:ere 
pasted, every day, leaves which had pre- 
viovisly been gathered and pressed. At t'le 
end of the month it \Yas a very pretty chirt 
of the leaves of the neighborhood. 

For November we had once a little paste- 
board storehouse with large doors which 
were fastened together by a hasp. Inside 
were squared calendar spaces and in these 



26 Kindergarten Aetivities. 

we pasted fruits and vegetables until our 
harvest was all in. 

A January device was a water-color pic- 
ture of the tree top visible from the kinder- 
garten window. On the tree top was repre- 
sented a Christmas sheaf,— the whole beins: 
painted against a blue sky. For each day in 
January we pasted a bird on or near the 
sheaf so that when the month was over there 
was a large flock of them enjoying the oats. 
We used birds again in April, representing 
them then in flight, on their return from the 
South, and against a cloudy sky. 

During March we sometimes substitute 
'^the picture of the day" for the regular cal- 
endar. Some one draws a picture every 
morning so that by the end of the month we 
can see just what progress the spring has 
made. The first pictures are apt to be snow- 
covered landscapes; often there is a snow- 
storm; then little by little the brown earth 
appears, the geese fly, a few birds come back, 
rain falls, the wind blows, the willow trees 
grow yellow, and here and there is a l)it of 
green. 

Some of us prepare our calendars in ad- 



Kindergarten Aetivities, 27 

vanco, making them in orthodox fashion, 
with an appropriate picture for tlie upper 
part, and with the lower jjart marked off in 
squares where parquetry circles, etc., may 
be placed. Sometimes we get our pictures 
from various sources, sometimes we make 
them ourselves, and at other times we have 
them made, artistic friends often coming to 
our assistance. 

We have tried the round calendar with its 
symbolic picture in the center and the 
months, weeks, and days indicated l)y other 
circles, but for many reasons we find a 
monthly calendar more satisfactory. The 
children notice and care about it as they 
never do for that more symbolic" embodi- 
ment of the idea of unity— the round calen- 
dar. The month's finished calendar is us- 
ually given to some child whose birthday has 
fallen within the month, and it frequently 
becomes a much prized ornament in the 
home. 

The hanging of the new calendar is an ap- 
propriate and interesting welcome to the 
new month, and the pictures are so sugges- 
tive as to add greatly to our store of inci- 



28 Kinder g art 671 Activities. 

dentally acquired songs and verses. For in- 
stance, we learned the classic ^'Twinkle, 
twinkle, little star," while completing our 
December calendar, and ''Sleep, baby, 
sleep, ' ' in both English and German as well. 
While the chosen child is pasting on the 
day's symbol there is plenty of time for the 
other children to repeat the days and the 
months, and to recite the suggested song or 
story. This done every day for twenty da^^s, 
more or less, results in the children's learn- 
ing these things without any apparent 
strain. 

Several lists of subjects are here given 
which we have found suggestive in planning 
our calendars. 

Outdoor Scenes for a Calendar. 
Water -Color Sketches. 
Sept. Going to School. 
Oct. In the Woods. 
Nov. Going to Market. 
Dec. Buying a Tree. 
Jan. A Snowstorm. 
Feb. Skating. 
Mar. March Wind. 
Apr. April Showers. 



Kindergarten Activities. 29 



May 


May flowers. 


June 


Strawberrying.. 




Indoor Scenes. 




Water-Color Sketches, 


Sept. 


Our Baby. 


Oct. 


Popping Corn. 


Nov. 


Thanksgiving. 


Dec. 


Christmas. 


Jan. 


Toys. 


Feb. 


Valentines. 


Mar. 


Story-time. 


Apr. 


Watching the Rain. 


May 


Housecleaning. 


June 


Packing up. 




A Nature Calendar. 




Suggested by Songs. 


Sept. 


The Brown Birds are Flying. 


Oct. 


Pretty Brother Johnny. (Orchard.) 


Nov. 


Summer is Gone. 


Dec. 


There's a Wonderful Tree. 


Jan. 


Little White Feathers. 


Feb. 


Ch, Wind, a Blowing all Night Long. 


Mar. 


To the Great Brown House. 


Apr. 


Pretty Little Dandelion. 


May 


All the Birds Have Come Again. 


June 


The Song of the Bee. 




An Apple Tree Calendar. 


Sept. 


Tree full of apples. 


Oct. 


Tree with leaves tiirning yellow. 



30 Kindergarten Activities 

Nov. Tree with leaves falling. 

Dec. Tree with bare branches. Christmas sheaf. 

Jan. Tree with snow and snow birds. 

Feb. Tree in snowstorm. 

Mar. Tree bare. 

Apr. Tree in bud. Birds nesting. 

May Tree in blossom. 

June Tj-ee in full leaf. 



CHAPTER III. 

MUSIC. 

IT IS not necessary to recapitulate here 
any of the theories of the twentieth cen- 
tury kindergartner regarding the qual- 
ity of the music to be used for and with 
young children, or the proper methods of its 
presentation. A^e simply want to pass on to 
any who may be interested some few of the 
musical ideas of the present day which we 
have tried and found good. 

Of course we use all of the accepted song 
books, but we find that we draw most fre- 
quently from, those of Eleanor Smith, Mrs. 
Gaynor, and Carl Reinecke. In instru- 
mental music, those of us whose technical at- 
tainments are of the simplest have found 
great help in the Katherine Montz book; 
while those who have been more fortunately 
and carefullv instructed revel in the collec- 



32 Kindergarten Aetivities. 

tions of Clara Anderson, the two Morans, 
Marie Ruef Hofer, and others of the same 
sort. The five simple melodies by Mrs. Cros- 
by Adams which begin with ''What the Bells 
Say" have long been a boon to many of us. 
They are so simple and expressive as to 
make delightful ''quiet music," and the 
touch of fitness which we are enabled to en- 
joy in using "What the Bells Say" at 
Christmas time, "Singing and Swinging" 
during bird time, and "The Rocking Chair" 
and "A Lullaby" during the first weeks 
when we are emphasizing the connection l)e- 
tween home and kindergarten, is only 
equaled by our satisfaction in using "Tlie 
Happy Farmer" in harvest time and sing- 
ing "Home, Sweet Home," every day just 
before dismissal. The children' seem to en- 
joy and appreciate "piano singing," and we 
feel that they are learning something ever}^ 
day of what music should express to them 
and for them. The little book called 
"Mother Goose Songs Without Words," by 
Mrs. L. E. Orth, has helped us and them in 
a very delightful, simple, and natural way. 
We keep this book for a birthday treat, and 



Kindergarten Activities. . 33 

it is most interesting to watch the lights and 
shadows on the little faces as the piano tells 
the story of Boy Blue, King Cole, or Bo- 
Peep. Some follow the melody with lips or 
hands, others only with expressive eyes. 

Our friends the Brownies often get into 
the piano. Of course, whatever we big mor- 
tals do they love to imitate ; so, when we are 
learning a new song, the same music softly 
played on the upper notes tells us that they 
are at work and following in our footsteps. 
Often our ten fingers become as many elves 
and make shoes, march, dance, shoe horses, 
or shear sheep, as the case may be, without a 
sound but with great deftness and speed. 
At the last note they whisk away into the 
folded hands and are seen no more— until 
next time. 

Of course we play on various and sundry 
imaginary instruments. The baby's music 
box can be easily imitated on the highest oc- 
taves of the piano, as can the mouth organ 
on the lower ones, and a drum on two very 
low bass notes. Everybody knows how to 
make banjo music by putting sheets of paper 
on the stretched wires. This we enjoy at 



34 Kindergarten Activities. 

rare intervals, as well as playing on the vio- 
lin, the harp, and the humble but familiar 
hurdy-gurdy. We have had, on occasion, a 
whole German Band, led by Johnny Schmo- 
ker of old-time fame and happy memory. 
We often make use of real drums, and, on 
gala days, trumpets and even zithers have 
lent splendor to our processions. 

Our musical guessing game we consider a 
great success. On a choosing day the name 
of the song is whispered to the teacher at the 
piano, and from the first note or chord the 
other children must guess what the song is 
to be. Occasionally two or even three notes 
have to be given, but it is wonderful how of^- 
ten one note or chord is all-sufficient. The 
children play this game much lietter than 
we do, and have never failed to grow very 
fond of it. 



CHAPTER IV. 

STORIES. 

OTHER kindergartners ' lists of stories 
being of great interest to us, we ven- 
ture to submit our list to other kin- 
dergartners,— not in its entirety, however, 
for that would hardly be possible. Our story 
list necessarily varies from year to year, 
since each teacher is at liberty to add to or 
subtract from it, as her reason dictates or 
her heart suggests, within the limitations 
which we set for ourselves in council. 

We have decided that stories presenting 
clear outlines and, accordingly, calling uj^ 
clear and definite mental images are best 
adapted for our use. We avoid the mass of 
detail with which many stories written for 
children are encumbered, and have sadly 
but firmly laid aside many tales which ap- 
peal strongly to our grown-up fancy but 



36 Kindergarten Activities. 

which seem to arouse little if any response 
in the children. Many so-called nature stor- 
ies are of this sort. The graceful utterances 
of Lady Blue Violet, the maternal admoni- 
tions of dear Mother Tree, the detailed con- 
versation of the Grass Blade fairies con- 
cerning Mr. North Wind, Jack Frost, and 
Father Winter, do not always charm the 
children. There are some nature stories, 
however, such as those in ^^ Among the 
Meadow People," by Clara D. Pierson, that 
we have found most useful both at the tables 
and during outdoor excursions; but as the 
years go on, we find ourselves holding closer 
to those stories in which people do things, 
where something happens, and where events 
move on to a climax. I have heard the story 
of Mother Nature's Children told in differ- 
ent kindergartens many times, l3ut never yet 
have I seen any genuine interest, attention, 
or enjoyment called forth by it. What there 
was of responsiveness was summoned up by 
the special efforts of the narrator rather 
than by any inherent interest which the 
story held for the listeners. 

In regard to the efforts so common among 



Kindergarten Activities. 37 

painstaking and conscientious teachers to 
get the children to ^'tell back the story," I 
hardly dare express myself for fear that I 
shall say too much. I have often seen it at- 
tempted in morning circles, but never with 
satisfactory results. Often the children had 
not cared for the story in the first place,— 
that was plainly to be seen ; there had been 
so little impression that expression was 
necessarily forced. Even Aviien a story in- 
tere^r'ts children to the point of making the 
desired impression, the expression cannot 
always l.e called out at a given time, as put 
down on the progra^.i. There is a pedagogic 
moment for the child's expression of stories 
in language, but it oftener occurs at home 
than in the kindergarten for very simple 
reasons. Children have more sense than 
many k:n lergartners suppose. They retell 
a story glii clly to the people at home who 
have not heard it— especially at bed-time— 
but when they are being urged to ^^ express," 
their faces plainly say, to one who can read 
them: ^^What is the use of telling you that 
story when you told it to meV^ The teach- 
er's coaxing invitation: '^Tell it to the chil- 



38 Kindergarten Aetivifies. 

dren just as if they had never heard it," is 
met with silent contempt, utter indifference, 
or a very halting obedience. 

So we have concluded to omit this time- 
honored but harrowing process; 1 ut that 
does not mean that we do not talk over or re- 
tell old stories, or that there is no time on 
our circles when the children express them- 
selves in story-telling. Some of the children 
have done this so well that it was a pleasure 
to listen to them, but this was exceptional. A 
little child's attempt at telling a story is us- 
ually so fragmentary, discTirsive, and there- 
fore uninteresting to his mates, that we are 
careful not to ask them to listen very often 
to such efforts. 

In this matter of retelling stories, the 
mother can be of the greatest practical as- 
sistance to the kindergartner. Happily she 
gives this aid more often than not, some- 
times by instinct, frequently with a knowl- 
edge of the service she is rendering. 

In the list of stories which follows, we 
have given those that we have used most fre- 
quently and that have ]:^roved from year to 
vear to be the children's favorites. 



Kindergarten Activities. 39 

The Potato Baby. (Kindergarten Gems.) 

The Story of Moses. (Bible.) 

The Three Bears. (Robert Southey.) 

Tliree pigs. (Nursery Tales.) 

The Little Sugar House. (Anon.) 

The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats. 
(Grimm.) 

Charlotte and the Ten Dwarfs. (Kindergar- 
ten Gems.) 

The Crane Express. (In the Child's 
World.) 

The Goats in the Turnip Field. (Cniild Stor- 
ies and Rhymes, Emilie Poulsson.) 

The Pied Piper. (Browning.) 

Dicky Smiley's Birthday. (The Story 
Hour.) 

The Bell of Atri. (Longfellow.) 

Hans in Luck. (Grimm.) 

The Story of Chusey. (New Year's Bar- 
gain, Susan Coolidge.) 

The Christ-Child. (Elizabeth Harrison.) 

Piccola. (Hi the Child's World.) 

Mrs. Santa Clans. (Anon.) 

Thumbling. ( Grimm.) 

The Elves and the Shoemaker. (Grimm.) 

Paul Revere. ( Longfellow.) 



40 Kindergarten Act i cities. 

Pegasus. (Hawthorne.) 
The Mouse Who Lost Her Tail. (Kinder- 
garten Stories and Morning Talks, S. E. 
Wiltse.) 
King Midas. (Hawthorne.) 
The Story of Cedric. (In Story Land, Eliza- 
beth Harrison.) 
The Line of Light (In Story Land.) 
The Little Hero of Haarlem. (In the 

Child's World.) 
Ehoecus. (Lowell.) 
The Pot of Gold. (Anon.) 
Little Ida's Flowers. (Andersen.) 
The Ugly Duckling. (Andersen.) 
Philip's Valentines. (Child's World.) 
George Washington. 
Abraham Lincoln. 
Freidrich Froebel. 
The First Thanksgiving. (Story Hour.) 

To these we add, as occasion calls for 
them, Bible stories, nature stories, hero 
stories, animal stories, and fairy stories. We 
tell the story of the burning of Chicago and 
something of the history of oui' own town. 
We also touch upon the legends of St. Val- 
entine and Hallow E'en. As to our sources 



Kindergarten Activities. 41 

of supply we depend largely on Grimm, An- 
dersen, Kate Douglass Wiggin, and Miss 
Poulsson, but we do not hesitate to draw 
upon the classics, the poets, our own recol- 
lections, and upon miscellaneous authors 
who chance to meet our special need*. 



I 



CHAPTER V. 

SONGS AND GAIVIES. 

HAVE visited kindergartens in wliieh 
the morning circle Avas a time of contin- 
uous sitting still. The fact that later 
another half lionr more or less of exercise 
Avas to follow did not mitigate the situation, 
for the one was as excessive as the other. 
While some children can remain perfectly 
quiet for that length of time many cannot 
without suffering from the want of some 
l)odily activity. For this reason we have 
learned to connect various physical expres- 
sions with the talks and songs of the first 
kindergarten period. The children take 
part in these as they will, those whose mus- 
(les are comfortable often sitting still and 
looking on while others, who perhaps have 
l)(^en looking at pictures for twenty minutes 
or so, gladly welcome the opportunity to 



Kinder (J art en jiefi rifles. 43 

move about a little. I can best illustrate 
this perhaps b} outlining a typical morning. 

When the children come in the chairs are 
found placed a))out tlie Aarious tables, an ar- 
rangement which seems to us l)etter than 
having them on the circle for various rea- 
sons. To begin with they are often needed 
about the tables during the 'M)efore sc^iool" 
period. The floor space is thus left open 
for free play, and it is better that the child 
should take his own chair to the circle than 
that it shoidd ])e placed there for him, just 
as it is l)etter that he should do everything 
for himself that he (^an. Besides, after the 
signal calling the children to their seats, the 
number of chairs belonging to absentees can 
be put out of the way without interfering 
with the uniformity of the circle. Too often 
these are hastily thrust back against the 
wall when they are bound to add an element 
of disorder to a place which should be a con- 
stant lesson in its opposite. 

A bugle call sounded on the piano calls the 
children to their places. Books, toys, speci- 
mens, pictures, and extra chairs are put 
away and when all are ready our national 



44 Kindergarten Aetlvifies. 

hymn, ^* America," is softly played as an ad- 
monition to perfect quiet. A soft chord 
calls the children to their feet and each one, 
carrying his chair, marches to the circle, 
where he stands behind his chair until tlie 
piano says to him in two chords, ' ' Sit down. ' ' 
The morning hymn is played and sung, the 
short prayer is softly spoken, and then 
comes the "Good Morning song." This is 
followed by what we call "an out-door 
song,"-" Jack Frost," "The Wind," "The 
Clouds," "Good Morning," "Glorious 
Sun," or any one of several others. A little 
talk is bound to accompany this song and if 
there is a moon its phase must also be dis- 
cussed in order that we may decide whether 
to sing the "Moon Boat" or "Lady Moon." 
The drawing of the moon as we saw it last 
usually illustrates this conversation. Some 
of us have to be urged to look more carefully 
the next time and happily usually do so. 

Our next duty is to our fish, the sparrows, 
or the pigeons. While chosen ones attend to 
their feeding the rest of us sing the appro- 
priate song, for the ceremony varies on dif- 
ferent days. The fish and pigeons are fed 



Kindergarten Activities. 45 

twice a week and the sparrows once. On 
Mondays and Tlmrsdays the song is ' ' Happy 
Little Fishes/' after the singing of which 
the air is played softly several times which 
means that the circle becomes a pond and all 
who will are fishes, while others look on or 
distribute fish food with a lavish hand. On 
the other days those belonging to the fidgety 
class become pigeons or sparrows in the 
same way. 

Then the calendar must be attended to. 
Of this part of the program I shall speak 
later only saying here that some one child 
adds the day's symbol while the others re- 
peat altogether, or sometimes alone, the 
days of the week and the months as they 
come. During the first part of the year 
when we are trying to teach our children 
something of times and seasons we enjoy 
playing a kindergarten adaptation of that 
old favorite ^ ' We 've come to see Miss Jenny 
O 'Jones." For this game we have a set of 
toys which we use dramatically, not every 
day but often. We have a tub, washboard, 
wringer, and clothes-rack, a stove and sev- 
eral irons, bread-boards and rolling pins, a 



4r> Kindenjaiicn AvtiviticH. 

work l^asket, brooms, and dusters. On Mon- 
day, for instance, one child is chosen to be 
Miss Jenny and one other to be her sister, 
friend, or helper. The two ladies get out the 
im2:)lements which the day calls for and set 
to work. The rest of the children, unless the 
number is too large, in which case a chosen 
dozen or so officiate, walk through hall and 
dressing-room and knock on Miss Jenny's 
door, her kitchen being conveniently located. 
The sister or helper opens it and the guests 
with operatic fervor l)urst into the song : 

''We've come to see Miss Jenny O 'Jones, 

And how is she to-day?" 
To which is responded: 

''Miss Jenny O 'Jones is washing. 

Please call another day." 
Then the guests, as they move away, reply : 

"We're very sorry to hear it. 

We'll call another day." 

On birthdays and festal occasions the 
Misses O 'Jones put ])y their work and get 
ready for their expected and persistent 
gue'sts, and give them a glad shock of sur- 
prise by singing, 

"Miss Jenny O 'Jones is waiting 



Kindergarten Activities. 47 

To see you all to-day. ' ' 
Thereupon the guests come pouring in with 
the gleeful chorus. 

^^We're A^ery happy to hear it, 

We'll dance with her to-day." 
Amid much rejoicing and shaking of hands 
the ball opens and for several minutes there 
is the sound of joyful music and flying feet. 

Should the day happen to be Friday, 
which is ^^ choosing day," there will be from 
fifteen to twenty minutes left after the 
morning's routine has been gone through. 
Suppose some small nature lover asks for 
^'Milkweed Babies." Several of the dainty 
seeds are taken from a convenient bunch of 
pods and passed by the chooser of the song 
to as many friends. These children blow 
the pretty babies high up into the air and 
they are followed by the absorbed attention 
and interest of the lookers-on from the mo- 
ment they leave the owners' hands until they 
softly drop back again and are sent sailing 
out of the window that the wind may plant 
them. Then the song is sung with all the ex- 
pression which a recently awakened or aug- 
mented concept calls forth. After this, 



48 Kindergarten Activities. 

to a bit of soft waltz music, all the children 
who wish to so express themselves can be 
milkweed babies themselves. 

Perhaps somebody asks for Eeinecke's 
** Pretty Brother Johnny." After the song 
there will be a short adjournment to the or- 
chard which springs up inside the circle and 
as many Johnnys and Pollys ' ' shake the ap- 
ple tree'' as feel inclined to do so. Or the 
chosen song is ^^ Stark, Stork, Stander"; 
then after the song a flock of storks appear, 
they solemnly stalk around, they stand on 
one leg, they stalk some more, stand again 
and at last fly away, all to the music of the 
song. 

If our typical day should be in April or 
May some one would surely ask for *^The 
Froggies' Swimming School," and after the 
song many lively little frogs would be seen 
in our circle pond whose realistic jumping 
is always an equal delight to beholder and 
participant. 

As a result of this plan of allowing much 
free physical activity to accompany the 
songs of the morning circle the children 
show no restlessness at that period or later 



Kindergarten Activities, 49 

at the tables, for to clinch the matter and to 
make sure that those who for reasons of 
their own have been more passive than ac- 
tive, have a still further chance to work ofl 
accumulating steam we have a ten-minute 
period of play, exercise, or marching after 
the chairs have been carried back to the 
tables. Some chosen song which demand.si 
more room for its expression than the chair- 
enclosed circle affords is occasionally saved 
for this period, or there is dancing, or ryth- 
mic exercise according to the need of the 
moment or the demand of the occasion. 

We are convinced that it is best to play 
our more symbolic, dramatic, and rej)resen- 
tative games on the first circle or in this ear- 
lier play period, for in the early morning 
the children are fresher and more receptive 
than they are at any other hour of the day. 
While the chairs are on the circle and they 
are comfortably seated, those games in which 
necessarily a few take part and many look 
on are much better played than on the later 
ring when the children are all standing and 
when with one accord they are longing for 
active physical movement. If compelled to 



50 Kindergarten Activities. 

do much looking on at this time they do so 
under protest of mischievous hands and 
shulBing feet. 

Such games as ' ' The Knights, ' ' * ' The But- 
terfly/' ^'The Barnyard," ^'Farmer," ^^ Mil- 
ler" '^Wheelwright," ''Blacksmith," "Min- 
er" and so on, we always play during the- 
lirst hour of the morning. The dramatiza- 
tion of such tales as "The Three Bears," 
"The Elves and the Shoemaker," and "Tlie 
Rainbow Fairies" is always well done at 
that time and poorly or perfunctorily car- 
ried out later. 

For years we have given over the so- 
called play circle, whi-ch occurs between 
10:15 and 11 o'clock, to such games as all or 
many can join in freely, and especially to 
such as call for unrestricted physical ac- 
tivity. We use many l^all games, dances, 
and marches. We play "Skij) Tag," "Go- 
ing to Jerusalem," "Fox and Geese," "The 
Farmer and the Bear," and a number of 
other running games. We make sleighs or 
picnic wagons with our tables and chairs 
and all drive "over the river and through 
the wood" to all sorts of delightful places. 



Kindergarten Aetivities. 51 

We have trotting, galloping, and jumping 
horses, we are little travelers, we have a dog 
and pony show, circus processions, and vis- 
its from Santa Clans. We have splendid 
old-time jousts where one gallant knight af- 
ter another thrusts his lance through an up- 
held ring as he gallops by at full speed. We 
have grand processions and parades, and 
several Brownie games of which the chil- 
dren never tire. A favorite one calls for a 
barnyard in which are sleeping horses, cows, 
pigs, sheep, and poultry. Night falls with 
the pulling down of the window shades and 
the Brownies stealthily enter and set to 
work. They rub down the horses, milk the 
cows, feed the sheep and pigs, hunt the eggs, 
and make themselves so extraordinarily use- 
ful that the good farmer is paralyzed with 
amazement in the morning when he finds his 
chores all done for him. 

We open a toy-shop at Christmas time and 
all those children Avho are not toys become 
willing purchasers. We sell dolls that open 
and shut their eyes and who say ^^Papa" 
and ''Mamma'' when the right strings are 
pulled. We have dogs that bark, cats that 



52 Kindergarten Activities. 

mew, woolly slieep that baa-aa, trains of 
cars, Jacks-in-tlie-box, balky mules, and 
dozens of other mechanical toys which we 
wind up and sell to our customers, who for- 
tunately are endowed with untold wealth. 

After our annual visit to Engine House 
No. 1, of course, we play ^^Fire" with great 
enthusiasm. We use a song beginning : 

^^Hear the clatter! What's the matter? 



Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! 



?? 



A large house is drawn on the blackboard 
with smoke and flame bursting from doors, 
windows, and roof. The well-drilled fire de- 
l)artment rushes to the rescue using erasers 
as hose and the game is to rub out the fire, 
but to save as much of the house as possible. 
At other times the play is more elaborate; 
part of the children go to housekeeping in 
the devoted building, others are neighbors 
living near by. The mother smells smoke 
and discovers a blaze in the cellar. She at 
once calls up the fire department by tele- 
phone; they fly to the scene— four times 
around the circle— while the neighbors rush 
in to rescue ba]:)ies and furniture. The chil- 
dren are very apt to gradually add to this 



Kindergarten Activities. 53 

game accessories in the shape of hose, har- 
ness, wagons, ladders, and hats, all of which 
we consider legitimate in so far as the idea 
originates with them. 

Dancing is a never-ending delight with us. 
In answer to the repeated calls for and con- 
stant choice of this form of play, we have 
gradually increased our number and variety. 
We have a one hand dance, a two hand 
dance, a four-corner dance, the Shaker 
dance, a skij^ping and running dance, a 
Brownie dance, jigs, sinix)le quadrilles, and 
even on great occasions a sort of German. 
At such times the tables are removed and 
the chairs put against the wall to secure the 
largest possible amount of floor space. Be- 
ginning with a leader we go on until all are 
dancing, after which we have found it quite 
possible to introduce certain very simple fig- 
ures, many of which are more in keeping 
with the character of five-year-olds than 
that of the grown people for whom they 
were intended. 



CHAPTER YI. 

PICTURES. 

IT TOOK us some time to find out wliat 
we wanted in the Evanston Ivindergar- 
tens in tlie way of pictures, and we are 
not altogether at one on the suljjeet yet. In 
fact, we have agreed to disagree on certain 
points and to perform each her own experi- 
ments from time to time. Some of us prefer 
to hang what pictures we liave in Septeml)er, 
making the room as attractive as may be 
within certain limitations. One, possessed 
of the Japanese idea, hangs in a chosen spot 
a single picture, replacing it by a new one as 
the thought and feeling of the kindergarten 
is centered on a new subject. Having a few 
pictures of her own, she exchanges tempor- 
arily with otlier teachers whose treasures 
she wishes to l)orrow. Since that ]:)articular 
school, taken as a whole, has a very good col- 



Kindergarten Activities. 55 

lection, she lias a wide range of choice. The 
children notice the new X3icture at once when 
it appears in the place of the old, and seem 
to value it all the more highly because they 
know it will disappear in time to make way 
for another. Another kindergartner pre- 
fers to husband her resources,— to start with 
one or two and build up her decorative ef- 
fect as the year goes on. 

On other points, however, w^e are abso- 
lutely agreed. We believe that each kinder- 
garten should own a large and growing col- 
lection of mounted pictures for the children 
to pore over, study, and dream about. We 
believe that the "before school" time is a 
golden opportunity for giving this particu- 
lar experience. So, as each new subject is 
broached, the children find when they come 
to the kindergarten in the morning a table 
full of pictures which they may handle 
freely. To these w^e add from time to time 
various picture books. We believe that our 
personal and active participation with the 
children while they are looking at these adds 
greatly to their value and to the children's 
enjoyment. So long as a ^^ grown-up'' will 



56 Kindergarten Activities., 

look on, sympathize, explain, and comment, 
a group of children will look at pictures con- 
tentedly. If left to themselves, a few may 
become absorbed, but the very ones who 
need most to learn to look at pictures will 
wander away to the sand or blackboard,— 
good things both, but there are times when 
the pictures are of greater educational value. 
Many of a child's mental images have to be 
strengthened by pictures, some have to be 
formed by this means chiefly, others are so 
clear because of familiarity with the objects 
themselves that pictures of these objects be- 
come luxuries rather than necessities. This 
is not saying that these mental images can- 
not be enlarged and improved upon by 
means of pictures which lead from the 
known to the unknown. I am only main- 
taining that every kindergartner should en- 
deavor to supply herself with the pictures 
that are most needed. For instance, it seems 
to me that in our city and suburban kinder- 
garten we need many pictures of animals, 
farm life, mills, factories and machinery, 
forests, mountains, cotton fields, planta- 
tions, and lumber and minilig camps. If we 



Kindergarten Activities. 57 

are going to touch on the historical side of 
our national holidays, we need pictures of 
the sea, ships, Indians, pioneer settlements, 
soldiers, and military camps. If we are go- 
ing to have songs, stories, and plays about 
the knights we must have pictures of 
knights, castles, kings, queens, and various 
phases of mediaeval life. When we use fairy 
stories, legends, and folklore we need pic- 
tures of elves, brownies, fairies, dragons, 
winged horses, and so on. This seems to me 
a very important part of public kindergar- 
ten work, for while a few of our children see 
pictures at home, many see almost none, and 
we have but to look back into our own child- 
hood and realize what pictures did for us to 
become convinced that we ought to provide 
them for our little Germans, Swedes, Ital- 
ians, and other children. 

Our pictures are mounted upon manilla 
or cheap felt paper. They are used by suc- 
cessive groux^s of children until worn out; 
but the collection is an ever-growing one, 
for in this day of cheap literature and copi- 
ous advertising, good pictures are fairly 
showered upon us. 



58 Kindergarten Activities. 

The blackboard is, of course, very useful 
in the kindergarten, but especially so when 
any of the teachers have skill in drawing 
and sketching upon it. Many, unfortunately, 
have not, and few harve both skill and time ; 
it is amazing how much time one can. spend 
on a seemingly simple blackboard sketch. 
We have discovered a much neglected 
resource in our older school • children, 
however, many of whom draw very well. 
Through them we have had many black- 
board illustrations which we could have se- 
cured in no other way. We like to begin 
with a farmhouse, around which center cer- 
tain simple home activities. To this we add 
from week to week barns, cow sheds, a barn- 
yard, fields, and orchards. This picture dis- 
appears under a blinding snowstorm after 
Thanksgiving to make way for a forest, sin- 
gle pine trees, and Christmas pictures. 
These give x^lace to special illustrations of 
trade and state life, which, as spring comes 
on, are superseded by a large bare apple 
tree. To this are added birds, a nest, leaves, 
and blossoms, while at its base grass, dande- 
lions, clover, bees, butterflies, and children 



Kindergarten Activities. 59 

flourish. These blackboard pictures are in 
white or in color, as the artistic conscious- 
ness of the individual director dictates. 

Certain subjects lend themselves so wil- 
lingly to blackboard drawing by the chil- 
dren that we try to take advantage of them 
as they come along, adding special work to 
the spontaneous illustration of stories, facts, 
and experiences. With a little help children 
soon emerge from the scribbling stage and 
pass on to where drawing is a delight. After 
some originality of expression has been de- 
veloped, they are ready for the little instruc- 
tion in perspective that we find gives such 
satisfactory results. 

A child who will tire of his own 
scribbling in a very few moments, if 
left alone, is delighted if you detect in his 
haphazard markings anything that bears 
any resemblance to an object within his ex- 
perience. He often tries to reproduce this 
and begins to scribble with a little more pur- 
pose. After this, one of the first things we 
do with such children— those who seem to 
have neither aptitude nor inclination for 
drawing— is to outline on the blackboard a 



60 Kinder (J art en A ef iv it ies. 

house with the suggestion that it be 
^^ painted" white, by using tlie side rather 
than tlie end of the crayon, and using it 
gently. We give them other outlines to fill 
in, leaves, fruits, vegetables, kitchen uten- 
sils, clothes on the line, and so on. Some- 
times after filling outlines in with white, the. 
children are allowed to fill them in with 
color as an added lesson in the use of mater- 
ial. Sometimes the children color a church 
window, a plaid shawl, a flag, a shield, a ban- 
ner ; but, as a rule, we use colored chalk spar- 
ingly and never give it except when the chil- 
dren using it are under supervision. Tho 
reason for this will be obvious to any one 
who has had occasion to witness the devas- 
tation an industrious five-year-old can 
work with a bit of red chalk. He always 
chooses red and decorates not only his own 
face, hands, and clothes, but the countryside 
generally, and all in the space of two min- 
utes with a piece of crayon about a quarter 
of an inch long. 

There are drawing teachers who object 
to the use of outline on the part of the chil- 
dren, and probably some who would not ap- 



Kindergarten Activities, 61 

prove of their filling in given boundaries 
with chalk or paint. Doubtless, good theo- 
retical reasons would be given for this dis- 
approval, but 'practically I have found, the 
results good. It certainly helps the child to 
control his material— especially the "paint— 
and that ground gained, he can be led on 
rapidly. In our schools the drawing teacher 
is most grateful to us for carrying the chil- 
dren through and beyond what is known as 
*'the mussy stage," which is so often a bar- 
rier to progress in the lower grades. We 
teach our children how to use a paint brush 
as well as the chalk, then how to put on 
paint, and after that to ' ' express themselves 
in color." One of our first lessons is given 
with little pails of water and real painters' 
brushes. With these we paint tables, chairs, 
woodwork, or anything else conveniently at 
hand. Next we use a small brush, water, 
and a slate. We learn that a paint brush is 
not a scrubbing brush; and, playing that 
the slate is the side of a house or a kitchen 
floor in need of being painted, we learn to 
handle our new implement with some degree 
of skill. After this, Ave progress to the use 



62 Kindergarten Aefivifies. 

of paper, on which we paint Ijhie sky, l^hier 
water, colored tiles, and green grass. We 
fill in outlined fruits, flowers, vegetables, 
leaves, birds, stockings, and mittens. By 
the time spring comes we are ready to try 
our hands on twigs, buds, and blossoms right 
from nature, for we have learned not only to 
handle our tools, but to circumscril)e our ef- 
forts within the outline of a definite con- 
ception. 

One of our pleasantest activities is the con- 
struction of a panorama or group-work pic- 
ture which extends the full length of the 
blackboard. This at times becomes a field; 
and, from twelve to fifteen children being 
set to work under direction, the field is soon 
filled with waving grain or sheaves of wheat, 
or it is a cornfield with pumpkins lying 
about among the shocks. Again, we have a 
chicken-yard represented where there are 
several triangular hencoops and many little 
yellow chickens. Sometimes there is a snow- 
storm and at other times softly-green hills 
and a blue sky. We have pictured our own 
blue lake, a clover field, and the Northwest- 
ern Railroad track in this comprehensive 



Kindenjarten Activities. 63 

fashion. To attain any sort of result, how- 
ever, tlie teaclier wlio gives these lessons 
must, it is needless to say, have some con- 
siderable knowledge of drawing herself. 

After a story has been told to them the 
children go to the board to draw any pic- 
tures it has suggested to them. This, when 
conscientiously persisted in, we have found 
of great value, for not only do they learn to 
express more skilfully, but they retain more 
and more ideas to express. Where at first 
only one or two objects spoken of in the 
story appear on the board, a little later the 
entire tale will be sketched in a way that can 
be easily interpreted with a little help from 
the artist. A visit to the blacksmith's, the 
engine-house, or the frog pond is often re- 
produced in this way. The stories of our 
various holidays, of what we did last Sun- 
day, where we are going next summer, have 
been subjects for illustration at different 
times. 

One of our guessing games is a drawing 
exercise. On *^ choosing day," the child who 
has the choice of a song drawls a picture of 
wdiat he wants, and we must guess what the 



64 Kindergarten Activities. 

picture means. This game is almost as pop- 
ular as guessing the songs from one note, or, 
at most, two, on the piano. 

Let me add to this chapter a list of sug- 
gestions for those children who reply when 
asked if they do not want to draw, ^^I don't 
know what to make." Suggest, as the oc- 
casion calls for it, any such simple objects 
as pennies, silver dollars, sticks of candy, 
cookies, crackers, cakes, pies, wheels, dishes, 
milkweed pods and seeds, boxes, barrels, 
fruits, vegetables, cats, ladders, fences, 
tents, flags, moon and stars, snow, rain, etc. 



CHAPTER VII. 

SAND. 

IN ONE of our schools we have our large 
sand table in the kmclergarten room, in 
another we are obliged to keep it in the 
basement play room, in the third we have 
none at all. There is much to be said in 
favor of the first arrangement, something 
for the second, but nothing beyond an exhor- 
tation to the ''patient perseverance" that 
"worketh wonders" for the third. 

With the sand in the room we can do 
many delightful things. The children, of 
course, have all the free play they want with 
it; they can be led to express themselves 
along definite lines, and they can receiA^e 
new impressions by means of it. It often 
proves a boon to new children, shy children, 
and tired children as well as to certain ex- 
peditious young persons who have a way of 



66 Kindergarten Activities. ' 

finishing allotted tasks before their fellows. 

The sand that is downstairs in the base- 
ment play room and which therefore is not 
seen and handled every day has all the 
charm of novelty to the children when they 
are taken to it for special work or play ; bnt 
of the two arrangements we much prefer 
the first. 

When the children are to have the sand 
for free play we take care to present it to 
them under varying conditions. At one time 
it is moistened and hands are the only acces- 
sories; at another, it is dry and dishes and 
bottles are furnished. The Second Gift 
spheres, cubes, and cylinders are often left 
conveniently at hand as an incentive to im- 
pression work. Sometimes a little sugges- 
tion leads to the use of the cylinders as lawn 
mowers or rolling j^ins. Real shovels are 
occasionally used for large enterprises, such 
as working the sand into mountains, farms, 
or castles. The little penny tools— rakes, 
hoes, spades, and pickaxes— are used for 
gardening and mining. Tin dishes of var- 
ious and fascinating shapes are brought out 
when the making of sand pies is in order. 



Kindergarten Activities. 67 

We have sets of these which include animal 
and vegetable forms as well as the usual 
stars, hearts, and fluted pyramids. 

Sand houses are, of course, the first con- 
structions offered to our admiring gaze by 
amateur builders. These are usually round- 
ed, with doors that would appeal strongly to 
an Eskimo's sense of fitness, and with win- 
dows most simply made by a finger or thumb. 
As an evolution from these, we take our 
rulers and cut oif curved sections in such a 
vVay as to give our structures something of a 
square effect. Windows and chimneys are 
made to match, and fences and doorsteps, 
which are a great improvement on the orig- 
inal attempt, can be fashioned by means of 
our one tool. 

Eskimo houses and the homes of the Cave 
Dwellers have kept many little fingers busy 
in the happiest sort of way. The bank swal- 
lows ' nesting places also add themselves to 
our list and a prairie dog village as well. 

When cake baking is in process we like to 
liegin with dry sand, some of which is re- 
served for sugar and frosting. We bring 
out our tin dishes and with them *^play i^-^ik- 



68 Kindergarten Activities. 

man.'' This familiar personage arrives 
with a watering can of liquid and leaves it 
in gallons, quarts, and pints (gallons pre- 
ferred) at the various back doors. Since it 
is baking day and a large quantity of milk is 
needed, he calls again and again until the 
sand and water are sufficiently mixed and a 
dough is produced which can be moulded 
into pies, cakes, doughnuts, biscuits, and 
loaves of bread. This is much better fun 
than having the sand prepared ahead of 
time. 

It is well to have a few old saucers in your 
collection of utensils, as they are especially 
valued for the making of pies. It is a joy 
to watch certain small cooks trim the edges 
of their pies and make more or less elaborate 
designs in the middle of them. Cakes are 
frosted with the dry sand, and cookies are 
cut out with a collection of old thimbles. 

We make gardens of every description. 
Sometimes we erect fences of slats, sticks, or 
toothpick^, and plant inside the fences rows 
of lovely flowers which are of every hue 
found in a box of pegs or Hailmann beads. 
Again, we lay cement walks with tablets or 



Kindergarten Activities. 69 

tiles. Often Ave use shells or stones for bor- 
ders, and occasionally we design and set np 
a fountain or a summer-house. We have 
made beautiful parks with flower-beds, 
lakes, benches, and bridges, and with cages 
for wild animals. 

Every year we make a farm. It is of 
course a hill farm with trees on it. Differ- 
ent animals are assigned to different parts 
of it and carefully kept out of the cornfield 
where pumpkins lie thick upon the ground. 
There is a house, barn, corncrib, windmill, 
and chicken house. Once there was a well 
with an old-fashioned sweep made of twigs 
with a thimble for a bucket. There is a 
plowed field where winter wheat is 
planted, and, of course, several pigpens and 
sheepf olds. It takes a long tim.e to build up 
a really good farm, but by doing something; 
to it everv day before school it gradually 
reaches completeness, and then we play with 
it as we please. We move the animals al^out, 
feed and water them, change or add to the 
buildings, mend the fences, plow, rake, or 
dig, and otherwise busy ourselves about the 
premises, as good farmers should. 



70 Kinder [fart en Activities. 

There are times when the whole sand table 
becomes one great sheep pasture with ac- 
companying folds and troughs. Again, it is 
a lumber camp in the heart of a pine forest. 
A river flows through this and is carefully 
bridged with fallen trees. There are shel- 
ters in the woods for the men, logs and rafts 
in the river, horses or oxen at work on the 
banks, and, many miles away, a sawmill. 

There are other times when the sand table 
represents a camp at the foot of a hill on the 
crest of which is a fort. Here you will see 
numerous tents, rows of well-drilled sol- 
diers, pyramids of cannon balls, mounted 
guns, camp-fires, and, waving over all, the 
stars and stripes. 

Last March there was a chain of moun- 
tains in which were gold, silver, coal, and 
copper mines. As I Avrite the sand table in 
one kindergarten is being made into a pic- 
ture of our town. There is the lake with its 
lighthouse, life-saving station, piers, and 
boats; the high ridg"^ of land to the west 
where some of us live; many houses, 
churches, stores, and schools; the factory 
where Jimmy's father works; the parks 



Kindergarten Activities. 71 

where the squirrels are to be found. 

A little later all the sand will be heaped 
together to form a grand castle, and not long 
after that we shall build schoolhouses with 
playgrounds, gardens, and trees, under 
which will be many bead children— for the 
half inch sphere, cube, and cylinder slipped 
on a two-inch stick makes a very nice child, 
especially if you crown his attractions with a 
clay hat or one made of an acorn cup. 

We have made '^Brownie Land" in our 
sand pans— a land of hill and dale, trees and 
flowers, lakes and rivers. Here a'corn 
Brownies, and sometimes other fairies, 
lived, danced, and worked. 

In addition to this indoor work with sand 
we have yearly excursions to the lake shores 
where we play in the sand to our hearts' con- 
tent. From these trips we bring home in 
pails and jars as much of it as we can carry, 
and this, especially in the kindergarten 
which has no sand table, is used much as we 
use our clay, that is, we cover the table with 
oilcloth and give each child a quantity of 
sand. The children greatly enjoy this even 
when they have a sand table. A favorite 



72 Kindergarten Activities. 

play with them seems to be the smoothing out 
of the sand with a cylinder and the making 
of marks or pictures in it with a wooden 
toothpick. 



CHAPTEE YIII. 

CUTTING. 

I^HE various training classes have, of 
course, given to their pupils schools 
of cutting, many of which are in use 
to-day, while others have been laid aside as 
too complicated or too difficult for children 
of kindergarten age. We are all of us sure 
that children lo^^e to cut, and that they can 
by x)ractice learn to use scissors more or less 
skilfully ; but just how that practice, espec- 
ially in its first steps, shall be given them is 
to some of us an open question. Many chil- 
dren must be taught to hold and handle the 
scissors, after which they need much ex- 
perience before their work brings them any 
sort of definite result. It is all very well to 
recommend free-hand cutting in a general 
way; but the fact of the matter is that the 
children for a long time cut so crudely that 



74 Kindergarten Activities. 

they are unable to get much satisfaction out 
of their efforts. They need some sort of in- 
spiration, some reason and incentive for 
keeping on until acquired skill brings pleas- 
ure in its exercise. The schools of cutting 
lie beyond this point, so it is of the prelimin- 
aries that I wish to speak in this chapter. 

One of our teachers devised for her smal- 
lest children a simple plan of work with 
scissors which she followed with such suc- 
cess that I give it here :— 

1. Free-hand cutting, to find out each 
child's degree of ability and to enable him 
to discover his own limitations. Suggest 
sticks of cand}^, fringed towels, trousers, 
shawls, and little scraj^s for chicken feed. 

2. Cutting out pictures with straight 
edges. 

3. Cutting out pictures with curved 
edges. 

4. Cutting on folded lines. 

5. Cutting on drawn lines. 

6. Cutting from drawn pictures of sim- 
ple objects. 

7. Cutting from objects themselves. 

8. Free-hand cutting. 



Kinder (jart en Aetivities. 75 

In addition to this, we have given the 
older children various cutting lessons which, 
connecting with the subject in hand and fur- 
nishing the required incentive, have seemed 
to us good. For instance, we classify our 
cut-out pictures and put them into a scrap- 
book, the index of which, if it had one, would 
read as follows :— 

1. The Family. 

2. The House!! 

3. The Father's Work. Home Work. 

4. Kitchen. 

5. Dining-room. 

6. Bedroom. 

7. Clothes Closet. 

8. Parlor. 

9. Pla}^ Room. 

10. Out of Doors.. 

11. School. 

12. Church. 

13. The Long Vacation. 

The advertising pages of magazines, old 
i)amphlets, papers, and circulars are our 
'"ources of supply. The children can be led 
to bring pictures in quantity, and we our- 
selves are alwavs addino; to the store. This 



76 . Kindergarten Aetivities. 

scrapbook in its construction gives the chil- 
dren great pleasure, and has the advantage 
of being a work which can be completed at 
home in case a child is ill or for any reason 
forced to leave kindergarten before the year 
is out. In fact, we paste only on the right- 
hand page, purposely, leaving the left blank 
for the children to paste pictures on at home. 

To meet various needs we have evolved a 
series of poster-like pictures made by a com- 
bination of folding, cutting, and pasting. 
Sometimes these are put into a book, and 
again they are mounted on separate sheets 
of paper or cardboard. A bit of green or 
brown background is painted or pasted on, 
and to this is added a picture of simple per- 
spective which is usually an illustration of 
a thought, story, or experience. Here are 
some of them : — 

House with doors, shutters, and chimney ; 
cut out and add figures of people. 

Kitchen picture. Add stove, cupboard, etc. 

Dog house and dog. 

Cow shed and cow. 

Bird hou?e and birds. 

Barn with horses, men, and wagon. 



Kindergarten Activities. 77 

Chicken coop and chickens. 

Mill and miller. 

Wigwam, Indians, and camp-fire. 

Blacksmith shop. 

Tents and soldiers. 

Shoemaker's shop and Brownies, illus- 
trating story of Elves and Shoemaker. 

Most children at home or in kindergarten 
have had the pleasure, by means of paper 
and scissors, of hanging out a mimic family 
washing. 

One fine incentive to careful cutting was 
a large manilla pax3er pantry with many 
shelves which one of the teachers made and 
brought to the children. It was only a flat 
piece of paper with the two outside edges 
folded in to the middle line to form the 
doors, but a little paint had made doors, lock, 
and shelves sufficiently realistic. This was 
fastened to the wall, and the children were 
provided with leaves of a hardware cata- 
logue from which good-sized dishes and 
cooking utensils were to be cut. As only 
good dishes could go into so fine a cupboard, 
the incentive to do one's little best was very 
great. Even after three groups had worked 



78 Kindergarten Aetivities. 

on it there was still room for more dishes; 
so it was sent to a sick child to be finished. 

At Thanksgiving time a storehonse was 
made in a similar manner, and filled with 
fruits and vegetables from flower catalogues. 
We have also made show windows for the 
florist and the grocer, not to mention a fine 
outside showcase which was filled with taste- 
fully arranged shoes. During Christmas 
week we filled large paper stockings with 
toys cut from newspapers, magazines, and 
catalogues. From old pattern books we 
filled the clothes closet in the scrapbook. 
We also cut out clothes enough to fill a trunk 
we had made. While we were playing baker 
we had lessons in cutting on folded lines, 
making square, oblong, and triangular 
crackers which we pasted into little baking 
pans or packed into cracker boxes. 

Daring the year we get more or less prac- 
tice and experience in the course of the con- 
struction of our cardboard furniture, toys, 
and Christmas gifts. In addition to this we 
have free-hand cutting from time to time, at 
first with some carefully planned incentive, 



Kindergarten Activities. 79 

but later in an absolutely free and unre- 
strained fashion. 

One of these incentives took the form of a 
Thanksgiving dinner table, which had to lie 
furnished with cloth, napkins, centerpiece, 
and dishes ; another was a chest to be filled 
with tools; still another a bureau whose 
drawers must be put to use. Fish were 
made to congregate in a strip of blue water 
and birds to appear against a bluer sky. A 
chart of leaves cut from freshly gathered 
models was one of the prettiest things we 
made last spring. 

We make use of these ideas as we have 
need of them, and add to them any of the 
schools of cutting which aj^peal to us. We 
make a point of this work for many" rea- 
sons, one of which is that our children should 
go into the first grade with the ability to 
handle scissors skilfullv and to do free-hand 
and other cuttinoj with some degree of orig- 
inality and intelligence. 



CHAPTER IX. 

CONSTRUCTION WORK. 

IT WOULD be impossible to give with- 
in the limits of this chapter a list of 
all that can be done in the kindergarten 
in constructive work, or even of all that we 
ourselves have accomplished. We can only 
give a partial idea and but a few of the most 
successful examples. Most of this work 
has been done as regular table work, but the 
making of some articles fitted better into the 
*' before school" time. 

Most of the kindergartens, even the most 
conservative, make a free use of cardboard 
modeling. The more we use it the more both 
we ourselves and the children seem to like it. 
They have such a strong sense of '^making 
something" in this occupation that they are 
constantly asking for it. Our cardboard is 
cut into squares 10 x 10 and 8x8, and we 



Kindergarten Activities, 81 

also have it in large sheets. Library paste 
is much better for this work than gum trag- 
acanth which, however, does well enough for 
lighter paper. 

Of course we make furniture,— every])ody 
does ; and we upholster it with beautiful bits 
of wall paper, to be had for the asking. 
Sometimes we work persistently at it until 
we each have a set to play with at home or to 
give away, but oftener, we make a single 
piece and play with it after it is made. For 
instance, there is a cradle like the one 
Oceanus nnist have had, which we make 
about Thanksgiving time. It is great fun to 
furnish it with soft flannel l)elongings; and 
when one of the tiny dolls (a dozen of which 
can be bought for a few cents) is put into it, 
we are able to sing ^^ Stork, Stork, Stander," 
with great significance. 

We make trunks with collar-button locks, 
and we fill them with clothes packed for a 
journey. We make money, and strong 
purses to keep it in. Then there are car- 
penters' chests to be filled with tools; fold- 
ing beds that really fold ; little churns with 
which we play at butter-making, reproduc- 



82 Kindergarten Aetivities, 

ing our experiences with the large wooden 
churn; bellows which blow; strong sleds; 
wagons of every sort with wheels made of 
milk-bottle tops ; windmills with little doors 
and fine wheels on top that turn around; 
dwelling houses, dog houses, ]3ird houses, 
and barns. There is a way of making a coal 
chute with which a delightful game of coal- 
man can be played ; and one of our teachers 
helped her children to make a whole barn^ 
yard. First came a strong fence, then a 
gate, a barn, a trough, and a chicken coop. 
Indeed, there seems to l;e no end to the 
things that can be done with this delightful 
material, for it develops inventiveness in 
both children and teachers. 

There is something exceedingly attractive 
in the idea of a corn-husk doll, l)ut this is 
one of the things that is better made for and 
with the children before school. Full direc- 
tions for making these dolls are given in The 
American Girl's Handy Book, and these di- 
rections can be simplified and adapted to 
one's own resources and necessities. 
Clothespin dolls gayly dressed in crimped 
t^!^'^ue paper are easier to make and potato 



Kindergarten Aetivitles. 83 

babies easiest of all. A few bits of cloth and 
some pins, together with a doll-shaped po- 
tato, are quickly transformed into a very 
satisfactory, if dark complexioned child, 
whose urgent need of a copious bath only 
adds to her charms. Keal rag dolls can be 
made, and often fill an aching void in some 
yearning mother-heart, for those cheap 
abominations in bisque, known as dolls and 
lavishly bestowed on children, rich and poor, 
at Christmas time, are so soon broken that 
many a child is without a doll except for a 
few all-too-brief weeks. 

It is because children so love to string 
things that we have the stringing of beads 
and of straws and paper discs. To these 
we have added adornments, beautiful to be- 
hold, made by stringing red corn with the 
inch straws, as well as necklaces of haws, 
thorn apples, and mountain ash berries. In 
dandelion tin-ie we string the yellow heads 
with needle and thread and make ourselves 
golden crown<=5, that we may be kings and 
queens; and one of the prettiest of our 
yearlv kindergarten pictures is that of a 
group of children coming in from a glorious 



84 Kindergarten Aetlvities. 

morning out of doors, wearing garlands, 
fashioned by themselves, of big red clover 
heads. These flower wreaths are greatly 
prized by the children and can be made of 
all sorts of field and garden blossoms. 

Among the toys which we have made for 
ourselves are pin wheels, color-tops, kites, 
little tubs and washboards, pails and dishes 
of tea-lead, baskets, brooms, dusters, and 
parasols. 

We have learned to make real candles 
and real iron holders ; and once, when play- 
ing horse, we manufactured nosebags big 
enough to wear as we munched our oats at 
noon. 

The weaving of our paper mats taught 
us how to do cloth weaving on the frames we 
made in our carj^enter shop. We wove rugs 
for the doll house, mats of felt, and the 
woolen part of a needlebook which we made 
for our mothers. We learned how to make 
mats out of strips of wrappins; and news- 
paper, so that we could weave at home when- 
ever we wanted to ; and some of us, the older 
ones, hammered four nails into a spool and 
learned how to do old-fashioned spool work 



Kindergarten A ct i v if ies. 85 

or knitting. We also braided strong string 
into reins with which to play horse. 

Last summer me made ''Pinny, Pinny, 
Poppy Shows/' such as our grandmothers 
used to play with when they were little girls. 
First you have to go out of doors and gather 
grass, leaves, and flowers, and you must not 
forget that weed flowers are often very beau- 
tiful. These are laid flat on a i^iece of glass 
over which is a paper covering, so fashioned 
that a little door opens on the face of the 
glass disclosing the carefully arranged bou- 
quet. Before you open this door you say— 

'Tinny, Pinny, Poppy Show! 

Give me a pin and I'll let you know!" 

and whoever wants to see must give you a 
pin. One of the teachers made a little flower 
lady for her Poppy Show. Its head w^as a 
daisy and its skirt was made of a hollyhock. 

Those latter-day fairies, the Brownies, 
are very useful folk in the kindergarten. 
They are responsible for all sorts of games 
and play«, and lend themselves suggestively 
to many kinds of handwork. At Hallowe 'en 
time we made acorn Bro^^nies which were 
very much enjoyed. Then, in order to play 



86 Kindergarten Act i rifles. 

Brownies ourselves, we made masques of 
paper and string wliicli we wore when we 
went on our mysterious l)ut always friendly 
quests. These we wore only for the Hallow- 
e 'en play ; for use during the rest of the year 
we made caml)ric Brownie caps, and shoes 
of strong cloth with funny pointed toes, 
which were large enough to go on over our 
shoes. 

During shoemaker week we made our- 
selves ^'real" slippers. These had denim- 
covered pasteboard soles, and the upper 
part was of bright colored flannel. The 
stitches that fastened them together were 
clumsy, but the thread was strong and they 
held together very well. 

The same little fingers that make shoes 
can make mittens as well. Each child draws 
around his own hand and cuts out a paper 
pattern— his size. By these patterns the 
gray eider-down flannel is cut. Next winter 
we shall make ourselves little muffs. 

We have made flags of various nations, 
and beautiful knightly banners, and shields 
of white and gold, not to mention castles, 
spears, helmets, and breastplates. 



Kindergarten Activities. 87 

While neither sewing nor folding with 
kindergarten material comes properly un- 
der the heading of constructive work as the 
term is here used, I want to mention a men- 
agerie we made after the universally en- 
joyed visit of a traveling circus. Each child 
outlined a square in half -inch stitches on 
one of the Q^^ sewing cards. Inside of this 
square was pasted a ^'scrap-picture" lion, 
tiger, elephant, or other beast, then long 
stitches were sewn across the card to repre- 
sent the bars of the cage. When the ten or 
twelve cards made by a group of children 
were mounted together, the effect was con- 
sidered very fine. 

We have sewed red, wdiite, and blue bor- 
ders on our sewing cards to make appro- 
priate frames for our little pictures of Lin- 
coln and Washington. We often fold a 
piece of paper into a form of beauty, thus 
making a pretty frame for a picture that 
has to do with some special subject;— as, for 
instance, a set of farm and barnyard pic- 
tures. We found it quite possil)le to get a 
dozen or more photographs of Daisy Ellen 
from the advertising pages of various maga- 



88 Kindergarten Activities. 

zines, and these were framed with great en- 
thusiasm. 

At the very interesting and suggestive ex- 
hibit held at the Kindergarten College dur- 
ing the meeting of the I. K. U. in Chicago 
(1901), we made note of several new things 
which we shall try at some future time. 
Among these are various ol)jects woven of 
hat straw^, a floor brush of raveled haircloth, 
and a table, the legs of which were made of 
three small spools glued together. There 
was also a good elevator made of a corset 
box. Hats and sunbonnets of tea-straw we 
have, some of us, already tried, so these 
should be added to our list. 

The making of a playhouse is a complex 
but altogether profitable piece of work. Af- 
ter a suitable box is found, some older car- 
penter will probably have to lend a hand in 
the making of windows and partitions ; but 
after these are rightl}^ placed, kindergarten 
w^orkmen can do the rest. Painting a house 
is one of the most absorbing of occupations. 
The day before it is undertaken, the chil- 
dren are asked to bring their overalls and 
working aprons. These, or other protective 



Kindergarten Activities. 89 

adjuncts, are very necessary, and not until 
well equipped can the Painters' Union go 
safely to work. Only a few can paint at one 
time, but as the watching of processes is so 
natural and so important a part of a child's 
education, there is no difficulty about the un- 
avoidable ^^ taking turns." Almost all of 
our larger pieces of carpentry have been fin- 
ished in this way. In one of the neighboring 
kindergartens the children give their own 
red chairs a fresh coat of paint from time 
to time as they seem to need it. 

After the house is perfectly dry and the 
papering of walls and ceilings completed, 
the floors must be carpeted and the windows 
provided with shades; so another industry, 
the making of rag carpet, must be under- 
taken. This is a simpler process than one 
might at first suppose. The children love to 
tear the cloth into strips, and their clumsy 
stitches are quite sufficient to fasten the 
strips together. When a number of balls 
have been made of the strips, it is time for 
the carpenters to construct a small hand- 
loom consisting of a strong wooden frame 
with a row of nails on each of two opposite 



90 Kindergarten Activities. 

sides. A warp of strong string is stretched 
across and then tlie rag strips are woven in. 
Small rugs are woven on our 6x6 sewing 
cards,— long stitches from end to end form- 
ing the warp, and the woof being woven in 
with needles or fingers, as one prefers. 

The kitchen fioor covering is made of our 
leatherette mats. Bits of fringed paper 
shade the windows and an appropriate se- 
lection of pictures, framed by our own hands 
with gold paper is hung in each room. The 
furniture is made of cardboard and some of 
it is upholstered with wall paper. The stove 
is painted black, of course. The inventory 
would read about as follows:— 

Bedroom. 

1. Bed. 5. Washstand. 

2. CYadle. 6. Bathtub. 

3. Folding Bed. 7. Couch. 

4. Bureau, 8. Chairs. 

Kitchen, 

1. Stove. 5. Chairs. 

2. Sink. 6. Wash Bench. 

3. Cupboard 7. Tubs. 

4. Table. 8. Clothes Basket. 







Kindergarten Activities. 






Dining-room. 


1. 

2. 


Table. 
Chairs. 


3. Sideboard. 

4. Serving Table. 

Sitting-room. 


1. 

2. 
3. 


Piano. 

Sofa. 

Table. 


4. Screen. 

5. Chairs. 

6. Fireplace. 



91 



To these items must be added a list of ex- 
tras, suc4i as clocks, shelves, brooms, dusters, 
bird cage, flower pots, etc. 

During the early autumn, when flies are 
troublesome, we make fly-chasers of news- 
paper strips fastened to stout wooden han- 
dles. These we give to our mothers or to the 
cooks, well knowing that they will be useful 
in the home kitchens. 

In the spring we make bird houses, one 
kind being simply a closed starch box with a 
large auger hole hj way of a front door, 
which is placed near the roof, Mr. and Mrs. 
Bluebird, Mr. and Mrs. Wren, and other 
prospective tenants having a decided prefer- 
ence for such entrances. A house for Mr. 
nnd Mrs. Sparrow is made on more conven- 
t'onal lines. 



92 Kindergarten Activities, 

For our own kindergarten we construct a 
wash bench, a clothes pole and a clothes bas- 
ket. The basket is woven of rattan by one of 
the teachers in the ''before school" period. 
She is assisted b}^ many willing fingers be- 
longing to interested spectators, who cry out 
from time to time, ^'I can do that! Let me 
try!'' 

We make rakes, using nails for the teeth, 
for use in our gardens. We make hurdles 
with which- to play our game of Jumping 
Horses, and ladders with which to play Fire- 
man,— these last, of course, just after our 
visit to the engine house. 

In addition to the toys already mentioned, 
w^e have made tops, kites, boats, sleds, and 
wagons. For the kindergarten dolls we have 
constructed tables, chairs, beds, and sleds. 
Once in a while we are turned loose among 
a lot of odds and ends of boards, shingles, 
and blocks, and we make whatever we like. 
As a rule, on these occasions, we run to fur- 
niture and ladders. 

With blocks, boards, spools, and good 
glue, we can make some excellent household 
articles. To these we add sometimes a 



Kindergarten Activities, 93 

cherry or mahogany stain, with good re- 
sults. We also know how to make very good 
snow shovels— not play ones, but real ones 
for home use. 



CHAPTER X. 

CELEBRATIONS. 

OUR Thanksgiving celebration is a sim- 
ple one. For weeks we have be^i 
working with the farmer and storing 
away our harvest, so by the end of Novem- 
ber we are quite ready to hear the story of 
'^The First Thanksgiving" and work it out 
with Gifts, Occupations, and plays. With 
the older children we give more time to the 
historic side of the occasion, allowing them 
to go with the Pilgrims to Holland, that 
land of windmills, canals, and dikes. In 
pursuance of this idea, we once made a 
little Dutch house with an open fire-pla(:'e, 
quaint furniture, and sanded floor. It also 
had a stork's nest on the chimney. From 
Holland we put to sea and live for a while on 
shipboard, where we make acquaintance with 
little Oceanus. I^ext comes a sojourn in the 



Kindergarten Activities. 95 

new country among the Indians, and their 
songs, stories, and occupations become the 
order of the day. We make beautiful bh\n- 
kets, canoes, and wigwams ; we are fine to be- 
hold in our feathered headdresses; and we 
learn a real Indian song. Then we are Pil- 
grims again and become early settlers. We 
make log cabins, corncribs, barns, stone 
walls, and rude furniture. We x)low, plant, 
sow, and reap, celebrating our first Thanks- 
giving with grateful hearts. 

During the last three days of the school 
month we dwell upon our own Thanksgiving 
experiences. We prepare for company; 
make journeys by rail, boat, or wagon to see 
beloved relatives ; we go to church and, later, 
sit down and feast together. Sometimes the 
day closes with '^dancing in the barn." 

In one of our schools it is an annual joy 
to bring the janitor his Thanksgiving din- 
ner. Everybody contributes, even our 
youngest, and the table, set in the hall, 
loaded down with good things and presided 
over by an enormous turkey is one of the 
sights of the year. 

Sometimes an offering is made in the 



96 Kindergarten Aetivities. 

shape of fruits, vegetables, or other pi'o- 
visions to some one in need. In this matter, 
liowever, we try to use great discretion. 

After Christmas we always have a doll 
party and cordially welcome the new dolls, 
who arrive arra^^ed in Christmas splendor. 
On the circle we sing for our guests the 
songs we think they will most appreciate. 
They frequently take part themselves, imi- 
tating our gestures with impressive earnest- 
ness. AVe play games in which they can join, 
and, when we go to our tables, are careful to 
23lace them in an advantageous position for 
vievvdng our work, and where collectively 
they present a most spectacular appearance. 
We make things for them to take home, doll 
chains, doll furniture, doll clothes, and doll 
scrapbooks. To this festivity those boys 
who have no dolls lia^'^e been iuAdted to bring 
other toys, musical instruments, miniature 
rolling stock and the like, for the crowning 
event of the day is a grand procession 
through some of the other rooms. First 
comes the band, — drums, trumpets, mouth 
organs and zithers; tlien the dolls, borne 
proudly on their owners' shoulders or seated 



Kindergarten Activities, 97 

in carriages ; these are followed by an array 
of carts, cars, ''liookin' ladders," woolly 
sheep, and other toys. This parade is so en- 
thusiastically received by the older children 
that we return to the kindergarten proud 
and happy, and are quite ready to sit down 
to the. old-fashioned dolls' tea party which 
follows. We have l^rought or ])orrowed sets 
of dishes, and we serve tea made of hot 
water and milk with lots of sugar in it. We 
have tiny crackers to eat with it and some- 
times California grapes or sliced bananas. 
At Daisy Ellen's kindergarten this party is 
given on her birthday and she has a cake 
with candles on it. 

Lincoln's Birthday, being a school holi- 
day, must 1)0 celebrated by all school chil- 
dren great and small; so we hear the story 
of this hero's brave and noble life, and we 
have drills and marches in our playtime. 
These are all the more enjoyed because they 
are not an inevitable part of each day's pro- 
gram, but are used onh^ when occasions call 
for them. We each make a picture frame 
in red, white, and blue, on one of our school 
sewing cards, the youngest children sewing 



98 Kindergarten Aetivities. 

simple lines and the older children invent- 
ing borders. In the center we ^ paste a pic- 
ture of Abraham Lincoln, and, after a 
hanger is put on, the whole makes a very 
satisfactory souvenir of the day. 

To George Washington we give more 
time, and on the twenty-first of February 
celebrate by the grandest procession of our 
year. We have made our own caps, epaulets, 
and badges; we have drilled until we can 
obey so promptly as to give a very good 
exhibition of military maneuvers; we have 
brought from home soldier suits, drums, 
trumpets, guns, and swords, and we have 
plenty of flags. Oh, but it is fine to see a 
kindergarten brigade march down a long 
hall with colors flying! to see it respond on 
the instant to halt! face! wheel! salute! for- 
ward march! or at the command Charge! 
dash away on the double quick. 

This same brigade knows many of the 
bugle calls and if you should chance in upon 
us some February morning you might see 
groups of men and officers strolling about, 
reading papers, building camp-fires, or cook- 
ing their food; but as the bugle began to 



' Kinderyartefi Activities. 99 

sound ^^taps" you would see every man get 
into his tent, into his bed, and fall asleep, all 
before the last notes of ''lights out" were 
sounded,— every man, that is, excepting the 
faithful sentry who must pace up and down 
the long night through. A little later you 
would hear "reveille" ring out, and such a 
dressing, washing, and splashing as there 
would be before the hurried breakfast. An- 
other call would bring each company to a 
line before its own quarters, heels together, 
arms down, heads up, ready for inspection. 
Then the colonel arrives, gorgeous to behold 
with his helmet and sword, to juit each com- 
pany through its drill. 

All kindergartens make valentines, but 
I wonder if they have the fun we do sending 
them to our friends in the other rooms. We 
find a carefully concealed point of vantage 
from which we can see. our chosen messen- 
ger leave the envelopes at the door, knock 
and run, as for his life. We like poster val- 
entines pretty well, bait are fondest of those 
we make of scrap pictures and paper lace. 

Froebel's Birthday we celebrate in many 
ways, our favorite way being to com1}ine the 



LofC. 



100 Kindergarten Aetivities. 

kindergartens when we can. It is great fun 
to liave such a big circle, such a grand 
chorus, and such clapping with the dance 
music. We have to take all the tables out of 
the room and sit l^ack against the wall. Each 
kindergarten has learned certain games, 
songs, and dances that the others do not 
know. These are intersj^ersed with the 
songs and games in which all can join. 

On one Froebel's Birthday we serenaded 
all the mothers for blocks around to their 
very great surprise and pleasure. Unusually 
beautiful weather tempted us to this exploit. 
At other times we have picnics or feasts 
indoors. Once we brought out all the Gifts 
and Occupations and had a grand choosing 
day. Always we hear the story of Froebel's 
noble life and for weeks before and after we 
sing with tender feeling that Ijest of songs 
for this occasion, 

"Across the sea in Germany, 
A hundred years ago." 

When a kindergarten child has a birthday 
and a cake is sent from home we set in the 
center of the room a little table on which is 



Kindergarten Activities. 101 

spread a white cloth and artistic decorations 
of vines, pressed leaves, flowers, or flags, ac- 
cording to the season of the year or the re- 
sources of the moment. The cake is placed 
on the table and its crowning attraction, the 
candles, added. When we have gathered to- 
gether on the circle the room is darkened 
and they are lighted. This, of course, sug- 
gests Brownies, and as many are chosen as 
the birthday child is years old. They come 
skipping in from Wonderland, they sing 
their song, they dance around the cake, and 
then, gathering about the hero of the occa- 
sion, present him with the cap and slippers, 
thus admitting him as a member of the 
charmed circle. Then there is more danc- 
ing and much hilarity. 

After the Brownies have whisked them- 
selves away, we sing ^^ Stork, Stork, 
Stander, ' ' in memory of the happy day 
when the new bal)y whose birthday we are 
celebrating came to Iris brothers and sisters. 
He chooses what he Avants to have played or 
sung, and we do our best for him, all in the 
soft pretty candlelight. It lasts just about 
until work time comes, and while all are 



102 Kindergarten Aetivities. 

bus}^ at the tables the cake is made ready for 
distribution. 

When no cake is forthcoming, and we 
never regard it as indispensable, we get up 
picnics, excursions, or bubl)le parties, ac- 
cording to wind and weather. We go to see a 
wonderful music box, to a garden, the green- 
house, the factory, the park, or the lake. 
Sometimes the birthday child's group goes 
to visit another kindergarten, or the child's 
own home. We keep a list of the birthdays 
and try to plan in advance the sort of cele- 
bration that will best fit the individual. 



CHAPTER XI. 

CHRISTMAS WORK. 

IN OUR celebration of Christmas we have 
learned to take advantage of the early 
days of its anticijjation, and at the time 
when the holiday seems to the children a 
beantifnl bnt remote occasion and the glam- 
our of recollection is upon them, to present 
to them the sweeter and more sacred aspect 
of Christmas. Before the visions of Santa 
Claus, trees, stockings, and toys become in- 
sistent, as they are sure to do later, we tell 
the story of the shepherds who ^Svatched 
their flocks by night," of the '^star in the 
East" which the wise men followed, of the 
^'Babe of Bethlehem"; we learn our hymns 
and carols; we get out our pictures of Ma- 
donnas, saints, and angels; we ring our 
Christmas bells, and hear once more the leg- 
end of the Christ Child. Then, as the tide 



104 Kindergarten Activities. 

of Christmas merriment and cheer rises 
higher, we float along with it and live in pine 
forests and among the reindeer; we become 
helpers in Santa Ciaus's workshop ; we deco- 
rate the kindergarten with evergreen and 
holly; we huy, transport, and trim onr own 
tree, and make ready for the event of the 
year, onr Christmas party. 

The big boys and girls are onr friends and 
helpers in the matter of evergreens. They 
can go farther afield than we can, and mem- 
ories of their own kindergarten days and 
Christmas parties seem to give extra zeal 
and good will. Onr smallest children make 
red and green chains to hang on the walls, 
and,, last year, all of the children worked on 
the Japanese lanterns which were festooned 
across the room. We had at first expected 
to make these like the lanterns we saw in 
a second grade room, of water-color paper 
painted by hand in rainbow stripes; bnt a 
timely gift of some beantifnl sample books 
of wall paper made ns change onr minds. 

Onr Christmas calendar is nsnally an ob- 
long piece of l)lack card})oard on which 
shines a crescent moon of gold paper. Every 



Kindergarten Activities. 105 

day we xjaste on a little gold star, sometimes 
outlining the great dipper and other easily 
known constellations. On our day of cele- 
Ijration we add a larger star— ''the blessed 
star/- the children call it who know the 
song of ''Ring, Happy Bells""— and the 
child who adds this crowning touch feels 
honored above his fellows. 

For a number of years we have observed 
^he Swedish custom of making "a Christ- 
mas house." This is fashioned out of shoe 
boxes. Little doors and windows are cut, 
and red tissue paper is pasted over the open- 
ings. A chimney is prominent, and the roof 
is covered with soft, fluff}^ cotton to repre- 
sent snow. The house rests upon a pane of 
glass with heaped-up cotton around the 
edges. The whole adorns a window sill, 
shelf, or table until The Day ; and then the 
kindergarten room having been darkened, 
a small lighted candle is placed within the 
miniature house, its radiance gleaming rud- 
dily through the tissue paper windows on 
the ice and snow outside. This ceremony is 
usually coincident with the lighting of the 
tree. 



106 Kindergarten Activities. 

At one Christmas eele]j ration onr atten- 
tion was called to a masterpiece of this sort 
by woeful wails from some of the children, 
while other accusing voices cried: '^It was 
William ! " ^ ' William did it ! " ' ' Oh, see what 
William has done ! ' ' and many little fingers 
pointed to a broken tissue-paper window 
through which William had thrust his pencil. 
William answered his teacher's look of re- 
proach by a mischievous glance, a wink and 
the jocular statement that Santa Clans had 
done that trying to get in. His teacher was 
wise enough to meet him on his own ground 
and laugh at his joke before saying: '^ Never 
mind, children ; William will put in another 
pane of glass, won't you, William 1" He as- 
sented gladly and then evidently regarded 
the incident as closed; but, later in the 
morning, he came willingly to a little side 
table where some paper, paste, the scissors, 
and the house had been placed for him. He 
went manfully to work, apparently well sat- 
isfied with himself in doing so; but, glanc- 
ing at the table he had just left, the iron en- 
tered into his soul, for the children were 
painting eggshells with gold paint and he 



K hide r (J art €7 Activities. 107 

was not there! A realization of the jnstiee 
of his sentence kept him at work although 
he asked anxiously if he might go back to 
his own place after the window was mended. 
His teacher cordially responded that, of 
course, he could do so, and divided her at- 
tention between the two tables, giving him 
what little help he needed, but alas ! his task 
was not such a simple one after all, for the 
paper had to be put in just as well as it was 
at first, and the folding, cutting, and past- 
ing took a good while. When at last the 
house was finished so were the eggs. I think 
this Avas William's first experience in taking 
the full consecjuences of his own rash acts 
which were many, l:ut as long as we knew 
him he never needed a second lesson of the 
sort. 

By beginning fully four weeks l^efore 
Christmas we have plenty of time both to 
hear and work out the stories of Piccola, The 
Little Pine Tree, Christmas in the Barn, 
Mrs. Santa Clans, or others that may ]]e se- 
lected. We have beautiful times with our 
blocks, Iniilding houses with large chimneys, 
fireplace*^, toys, and useful gifts. We make 



108^ 



K inde rgart en A cfivities. 



presents for our friends out of the tab- 
lets, sticks, and rings, and invent many 
forms of beauty which we play are orna- 
ments for the tree ; we paint pine trees and 
stockings; we draw Christmas pictures; we 
make toys and gifts out of clay. We cut out 
toys from catalogues and newspapers, and 
paste them on (we play that it is in) paper 
stockings; we also work every day on the 
gifts we are making for the dear home peo- 
ple, all of whom are to be invited to the 
party. What do we make? Oh, many 
things ! Here are some of them : — 



Pin trays, 
Bookmarks, 
Match scratchers. 
Blank books. 
Letter pockets, 
Post card pockets. 
Sachet bags, 
Christmas pictures, 
Workbaskets, 
Wastebaskets, 
Penwipers, 
Iron holders. 
Receipt books, 



Blotters, 

Stami3 cases, 

Needlebooks, 

Calendars, 

Shaving balls, 

Picture frames, 

Rattles, 

Napkin rings, 

Jelly, 

Dusters, 

Scrapbooks, 

Reins, 

Etc. 



Kindergarten Actiulfie,s. 109 

Something new in calendars was brought 
by a child last year which furnished a sug- 
gestion for another gift. It was only a 
kodak picture of the child himself pasted 
above the necessary figures on a bit of dark 
green cardboard, but his teacher was so glad 
to get it that she immediately had visions of 
her own kodak being brought into play for 
the delighted amazement of the mothers of 
her *^this year's flock." 

One of my own most welcome gifts last 
year came to me from a child who had made 
it herself. On twelve pieces of blotting 
paper was pasted the calendar for each of 
the twelve months, and a bit of blue ribbon 
tied the whole together. No one who has not 
had a present of this sort can appreciate the 
convenience of a clean blotter every month 
on which one can find the date at a glance. 

Of course we string popcorn, cranberries, 
and straws as well as small rings of gold 
paper; we also make cornucopias, tiny lan- 
terns, folded beauty forms, and paper bas- 
kets for the tree ; we gild nuts and eggshells, 
and make birds' nests, out of ravelings, into 
which we put clay eggs. Sometimes, at the 



110 Kindergarten Activities. 

last moment, we ])low a podful of milkweed 
seeds over the tree, w4iere they look like 
snowflakes. 

A chosen few go dow^n town to buy the 
tree. We insist on having a spruce, for w^e 
must have that delicious Christmas odor 
which always carries the teacher back to her 
own childliood and forms like associations 
for the children. How we love to sing 
^'There's a Wonderful Tree" as we trim it 
^'the clay before"! This is a great occasion. 
Not a mother would be allow^ed inside the 
room under au}^ condition. Every child 
must, of course, share in the work of decor- 
ation, and we flatter ourselves that we have 
learned how^ to manage this with comfort 
and satisfaction to all. The trimmings are 
divided among the children, each having 
from ten to a dozen fragile treasures to 
guard ; the big step-ladder is l^rought in and, 
six at a time, they come and go, bringing 
som.e one thing which they put where they 
think it will look best. The bolder spirits 
mount the ladder and trim from the top 
down, while the more conservative keep to 
the lower branches. 



Kindergarten Activities. Ill 

When everything is done and kindergar- 
ten is over for the day, the children from 
tlie higher grades ckister about the tree like 
flies around a honey pot. They never seem 
to tire of the kindergarten Christmas tree, 
and overwhelm us with offers of help, many 
of which we are glad to accept since the tree 
must do duty not only for us but also for the 
first grade children in the afternoon, and 
later be carried to somebody's house— some- 
body having seven children, more or less, 
apt to be overlooked by Santa Claus. 

Experience has taught us that our cele- 
bration proper cannot begin until half past 
ten, although the children and a few coerced 
parents are at the door long before nine. 
For obvious reasons the busy mothers, many 
of whom must bring babies with them, must 
drift in one by one from the opening of 
school to the middle of the morning. So we 
have our morning circle as usual, singing 
some of our best songs for those who have 
come, but saving our Christmas program 
for a later hour. Then we go to our tables 
for a half hour's work, for we are glad to 
show our friends not onlv what kind of work 



112 Kindergarten Activities. 

we do in kindergarten but how well we can 
do it. After this the tables are taken out of 
the room and we move our chairs back 
toward the wall where our guests are sitting, 
having the privilege of placing ourselves 
close to our dearest and best. Then comes a 
half hour's exercise and play, and our care- 
fully prepared ' ' Christmas Dance. ' ' By the 
time this is over everyl^ody has come and we 
can close the doors and pull down the shades. 
Amid a breathless silence the candles are 
lighted, and as the last tiny flame adds its 
glow to the rest, forty little voices burst 
forth into 

"Oh! this Wonderful Tree 

With its branches wide 
Is always, is always 

Blooming at Christmas-tide !" 

' Our Christmas program follows this, be- 
ginning as we began weeks ago with ^^In 
Another Land and Time." Then the piano 
plays softly '^What the Bells Say," and a 
bell-ringing takes place— A -flat and F nat- 
ural being used with an echo on D -fiat. We 
sing ^' Ring, Happy Bells," ''Alone in a Man- 
ger," the whole of the Christmas tree song, 



Kindergarten Activities. 113 

and our beloved ''Up on the House-top." 
This song of St. Nick preludes the recital, by 
us all, of part of " 'Twas the Night Before 
Christmas." Then comes a pause. Very 
soft but very lively music is played. What 
does it mean"? Out from somewhere come 
the Brownies, a few of our chosen ones, wh') 
with peaked caps and felt slippers look their 
parts well. They dance about the tree and 
sing : 

"Brownies are we, etc.," 

until a particular chord on the piano sends 
them flying. 

The shades are raised, the candles Ijlown 
out, and the kindergartner makes a little 
speech to the mothers, telling them how wel- 
come they are and warning them on no ac- 
count to feel of the dainty white packages 
which are to be carried home to-day but not 
opened until Christmas morning. We sing 
our good-bye song and after that— the del- 
uge! Informal greetings are supposed to 
follow, but our own children as well as the 
little brothers and sisters, all of whom have 
kept the peace as long as possible, pervade 



114 Kindergarten Activities. 

the place, and there is always a general 
mix-up of laughter, conversation, wraps, 
rubbers, babies, and Christmas hilarity ; but 
everybody is happy and the party breaks up 
Vvdth joyful choruses of the dear old words: 
' ' Merry Christmas ! Merry Christmas ! ' ' 



CHAPTER XII. 

GARDENING. 

STARTING with very little we have 
gradually accumulated considerable 
knowledge of the exigencies of kin- 
dergarten gardening. We have come to the 
conclusion that such window plants as we 
want we will slip and pot during the sum- 
mer, or witli the children early in Septem- 
ber. We tie closely to geraniums and Wan- 
dering Jew, although English and other 
ivies have proved responsive, as have some 
of the various plants contributed by the chil- 
dren. We enjoy planting an orchard, using 
apple, orange, lemon, peach, pear, and plum 
seeds. A vegetable garden consists of a 
grain of corn, a bean, a pea, a potato, an on- 
ion, a turnip, and a carrot also inspires 
much interest. We buy, as Ave can afford 
them, Chinese lilv and other bulbs, and some 



116 Kindergarten Aetivities, 

blooming plants, such as daffodils and cliry- 
santliemums. We get these treasures often- 
times by means of our unique system of 
banking. In .each kindergarten is a toy 
bank; one bears the semblance of dog with 
an open and hungry mouth, another of an 
owl, and the third of a mother eagle who 
drops pennies placed in her beak in the gen- 
eral direction of two eaglets, who give a fas- 
cinating squeak at the dramatic moment. 
These birds and beasts are all fond of gum 
and candy pennies, in fact, they care for no 
other kind. They never under any circum- 
stances eat Sunday school money, and have 
an aversion for that which is being saved up 
at home for any good purpose. Since most 
children who go to public schools, and es- 
pecially those from the poorer classes have 
many ^^gum and candy pennies" given to 
them, we are, in the course of a year, able to 
divert quite a considerable sum from the lit- 
tle shops full of alluring prize packages, 
candy cigars, and yards of licorice, into the 
hollow and ever-yawning interiors of our 
menagerie. The animals are always very 
p-r^teful when fed and clank their thanks in 



Kindergarten Activities. 117 

a way that fills the small benefactor with 
pride and joy. 

One of our earliest purchases was a load 
of black earth which was placed in one cor- 
ner of the schoolyard. In the fall we add 
street scrapings and leaves to this, so that 
it grows richer from year to year and is just 
so much the better for filling pots and boxes. 
From this heap, in small wheelbarrows and 
wagons, we carry a top dressing to our out- 
door garden beds. 

In the spring our first work is the 
clearing away of winter rubbish. Some- 
times this necessitates a bonfire. After 
the garden beds are made, we are, now, suffi- 
ciently wily to allow the first growth of 
weeds to come up before we plant. The 
main crop consists of wheat, oats, and corn. 
These are well up before school closes and 
are reaped for us during vacation, so that 
when we come back we have sheaves and 
corn-ears, first for decoration and later for 
use. The wheat we thresh and grind for 
a yearly cake-baking festival. Unbolted 
flour stirred up with a little milk, salt, and 
baking powder, and fried in butter makes 



118 Kindcrfjarten Activities. 

excellent ''panny-cakes," as we have good 
reason to know. The oat sheaf becomes a 
birds' Christmas tree on the last day of the 
winter term, and, when spring comes, is in 
great demand for sparrows' nests. The corn 
w^e shell and use for seed work and chains.. 

In our other garden beds we have learned 
to plant for late results. For seed pods w^e 
like gourds, wild cucumber, Japanese lan- 
tern plant, ground cherry, and a l)ean which 
bears a purple pod. In the flovrer beds we 
plant asters, dwarf sunflowers, cosmos, 
marigolds, and snapdragons, because all of 
these bloom in September or October. For 
a decorative effect nothing is better than the 
castor bean, since that impressive plant does 
not really get down, or rather come up, to 
business until school opening time. 

After our seedlings are well up we have 
to do one thorough Job of weeding before 
school closes, after which the whole planta- 
tion must be surrendered to the tender mer- 
cies of the Lord High Janitor. In some of 
our kindergartens we are most fortunate in 
finding him a kind and friendly helper. One 
year we were al)le to leave a little money 



Kindergarten Activities, 119 

with one, which he used in giving employ- 
ment to certain well-known restless spirits 
in the neighborhood who might otherwise 
have committed depredations on our cher- 
ished plot. 

In one of our kindergarten yards we have 
had for years a real tree nursery. In late 
May and in June the children dig up tiny 
elms, maples, box-elders, and other trees, 
and transplant them to a sheltered spot. 
Some of these are now such good-sized trees 
that they have had to be transferred to the 
open lawn. Willow switches planted in the 
spring soon become trees, as we have found ; 
and we have grown to be especially fond of 
our little cottonwoods, since they, too, make 
rapid growth. 

A quantity of perennial daisies set out in 
our gardens is a source of ever-recurring 
September delight, for in that month the 
flowers are at their best. Not only do they 
make beautiful bouquets for the schoolroom, 
but they seem to nod and smile a cordial wel- 
come as we come back to begin each new 
year's work. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

EXCURSIONS. 

DURING the early part of the school 
year, while we are getting acquainted, 
we often make visits in small groups 
to each other's homes. We choose for such 
expeditions those da^^s which are so beauti- 
ful that it seems as though one must be out 
of doors. Fortunately, in our climate they 
are of frequent occurrence during Septem- 
ber and October. 

On the way there is so much to see ! The. 
beautiful trees, the busy squirrels, the mi- 
grating birds surround us ; we pass gardens 
bright with fall flowers and brilliant foliage ; 
we gather mountain ash berries, as well as 
plantain, chickweed, and catnip for home 
pets. The little host is always glad to show 
us his home, his mother, the baby, his gar- 
den, and his toys ; and he enjoys our interest 



Kindergarten Aetivities. 121 

in his dog, the pigeons, the Idttens, or the 
chickens. We come away laiowing each 
otlier better and witli that feeling of closer 
relationship between home and kindergar- 
ten which is so desirable. 

The teachers secretly take note of the re- 
sources of these homes, well knowing that 
they may draw on them in time of need. 
They know which family keeps a cow, whose 
mother has a lovely music-box, what father 
uses tools, and which one owns a team. 

A number of gardens have been open to us 
for years. To these we go every September 
for seeds, pods, and berries. Sometimes we 
bring back seedlings which have come up so 
late that they will bloom indoors. We make 
special visits to the places where we are most 
apt to see the wild birds, and make a point 
of calling on every family in the neighbor- 
hood where pets are kept. One boy has a 
mother goat and a kid; another keeps Bel- 
gian hares; still another raises white rab- 
bits; and another owns a little donkey on 
which we may ride. We have been to see 
Harold's parrot, Fanny's Angora cat, Don's 
turtles, and Harlow's Guinea pigs. 



122 Efindergarten Activities. 

We are fortunate in living in a town 
where there are many squirrels. These have 
been so tamed by the school children that 
they not only take nuts from one's hand but 
actually waylay the passers-by and demand 
food. Numbers of these gray and red ras- 
cals live in our small parks where there are 
many oak trees. Here they build their nests 
and may be seen at almost any time. 

Occasionally we go out with the special 
purpose of looking at the trees, and we en- 
joy naming every tree we pass within a 
given limit, as well as bringing back a sam- 
ple leaf from each variety with which to 
play guessing games. We have an outdoor 
guessing game which is greatly enjoyed. 
The teacher stops and says: ^^I see a maple 
tree! One, two, three, runV and the game is 
to run to a maple tree and stand under it 
until she comes to assure you that you are 
all right. All who find the right tree run 
again, while the rest stay with her, and the 
game goes on till the last child is puzzled or 
the time is up. In this way we have learned 
to know hard, soft, and cut-leaf maples, red 



Kindcnjarten Activities. 123 

oak, white oak, ash, ehn, box elder, linden, 
Cottonwood, and willow trees. 

Only a little way from our kindergarten 
are fields and roadsides bright with sunflow- 
ers, golden-rod, asters, and fall daisies. 
These we gather and send in to the city hy 
the students who are going and coming al- 
most every day, and who seem not only will- 
ing but glad to carry baskets, bundles, or 
bouquets. We gather acorns and seeds for 
these city friends, and sometimes send them 
flowers from our home and school gardens. 

Of course, we make special excursions co 
the blacksmith's, the baker's, the shoemak- 
er's, the engine house, the lighthouse, and 
the life-saving station. On one occasion we 
were most royally entertained at the Colum- 
bia Bakery. Not only were we shown the 
work rooms, the ovens, the ice crushers, and 
the huge freezers, but each one of us was al- 
lowed to make a candy cane with his own 
hands; and as if this were not enough, a 
luncheon of ice cream and cake was served, 
in our honor. 

The event of the year, however, next to 
the Christmas party, is our visit to the en- 



124 Kindergarten Activities. 

gine house. The men are expecting us for 
some of them have now or have had children 
in the kindergarten. They take us first up- 
stairs to the tidy big bedroom with its rows 
of beds, chairs, and little closets. They 
show us the great hole in the floor through 
the middle of which runs a shining brass 
pole. They invite us to slide down with 
them, and after a few gasps of astonishment, 
amid a breathless interest, some bold spirit 
volunteers. A fireman takes him on one 
strong arm, and, twining the other and his 
legs about the pole, goes wMz down to the 
floor below. There is a wild shout, and of- 
fers to follow pour in upon the other men^ 
who accept as many as possible. They slide 
down and come upstairs for another load 
over and over again until the teachers feel 
obliged to end the fun by suggesting that all 
go downstairs to see the engines. The mar- 
shal lets us climb all over the engines, hose 
cart, and hook-and-ladder wagon. We try 
on the hats, hang on the steps, and rummage 
about to our hearts ' content. Then we all go 
to a safe place and there is a drill for our 
benefit. Over and over again the alarm bell 



Kindergarten Activities, 125 

rings; the horses dash to their places, the 
men come sliding down the pole ready for a 
run, all in a few seconds. 

One of the children who had always given 
her teacher trouble by tardy or reluctant 
obedience was greatly impressed by this 
drill. At one word from the marshal the 
horses wheeled, ran, and backed into their 
stalls without an instant 's hesitation. After 
the exhibition w^as over she drew a long 
breath, looked up at her teacher and ex- 
claimed, '^My! how they do mind!" From 
that time on her whole conduct changed in 
the kindergarten, and, it is to be hoped, at 
home also. 

Before we leave the engine house we give 
our hosts a concert which they seem to enjoy 
very much. Then our good friend the mar- 
shal presents us each with an orange, and in- 
vites us cordially to come again. This we 
promise faithfully to do next year, and we 
go home happy and grateful, with a tremen- 
dous amount of stored-up material for fu- 
ture work and play. 

Several times during the year we visit the 
other rooms in the school, usually at recess 



126 Kindergarten Activities. 

time when our coming will be no interrup- 
tion. We like to see the pictures on the 
walls, the plants in the windows, the 
mounted work, and many other objects of 
interest sure to be found there. We espec- 
ially enjoy this at Thanksgiving and Christ- 
mas time, on Washington's Birthday and 
Memorial Day. 

After our February class has been in the 
First Grade a few weeks we visit them, tak- 
ing our chairs with us and sitting politely 
through a reading and a writing lesson. 
Then we go l)ack and play school. 

In the spring we go out to hunt the first 
dandelions, to get twigs or leaves from dif- 
ferent trees, to visit gardens and chicken 
yards, and to gather wild flowers. We go 
out on the prairie when the meadow larks 
and the bobolinks sing, and we visit the frog 
pond. We keep watch of certain robins and 
blue jays that are building nests, and become 
acquainted with bluebirds, woodpeckers, 
thrushes, orioles, and warblers. 

When the apple trees are in bloom, we 
take our work into somebody 's garden where 
we know we are welcome, .and spend the 



Kindergarten Activities, 127 

whole morning where the soft white petals 
can fall into our laps, where the air is full of 
fragrance and bird song, and where we can 
almost see spring turn into summer. 

Our spring songs never sound so sweet as 
w^hen sung out of doors in the warm sun- 
shine; so sometimes we go serenading and 
sing a chosen repertoire under the windows 
of certain mothers whom we know will be 
glad to hear us. 

One perfect day, after we had learned to 
sing that delightful song,— 

"Oh, have you seen the swimming school, 
Where the froggies learn to swim?" 

we went out on the prairie about half a mile 
to a good-sized x^ond where ' ' there truly was 
a froggies' swimming school." There were 
dandelions, grass flowers, and birds all about 
us, and when we reached the pond, we stood 
on its edge and sang the song as we never did 
before and never have since. After a lunch- 
eon of crackers and milk, we went fishing 
with poles found on the way, to which were 
attached strings and crooked pins. Not that 
we had any idea of catching anything, — but 
then we might! The big boys said there 



128 Kindergarten Activities. 

were crawfish and shiners there; and, any- 
way, when you sit on the edge of a pond and 
dangle your hook in the water, it's fishing. 

The crowning joy of that spring day was 
reserved, however, for the last. A tin pail 
to which a rope was attached was carefully 
cast into just the right spot and came out 
full of pollywogs. There were millions of 
them to be had for the taking, so we fished 
up as many as we wanted. These were car- 
ried back to the kindergarten and made 
comfortable in our acquarium with ditch 
water, mud, and weeds. We watched them 
grow for many weeks, and then, on the last 
day of school, divided them among the chil- 
dren, who took them home to keep until the 
pollywogs developed into frogs. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

INTERVALS. 

IN ANY public kindergarten where there 
are se^ eral groups of children there are 
necessarily times when some have to 
wait for others to put away work or come to 
order. A wise teacher will make use of 
these periods in a variet}^ of ways. There is 
no better time for the Sense Games, which 
are as a rule too seldom and too lightly 
touched upon. These should be played over 
and over again until time enough has 
been given them to produce a real result. 
Games of seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, 
and smelling can be devised with all sorts of 
objects, much material being necessarily at 
hand. Balls, blocks, sticks, tablets, beads, 
rings, cloth, minerals, seeds, leaves, flowers, 
nuts, and fruits are a few of many easily 
procured articles. 



130 Kindergarten Activities. 

During these intervals, the treasures 
loaned by friends or brought in by the chil- 
dren can again be handled and examined. 
The color top can be used. Statistics can be 
taken regarding birthdays, the fathers' 
work, the children's home work, what they 
mean to do when they grow up, what they 
do on Saturda^^s or Sundays, their journeys, 
what work or jjlay they like best, and so on. 

We play some of the old-fashioned hand- 
kerchief games at this time, teaching the 
children to make the baby's hammock, the 
jumping rabbit, the grandmother's cap and 
the dancing dolls. 

There is a mystifying bit of play about 
^'Two little blackbirds" which children en- 
joy greatly when It is new to them and which 
they like to learn for the sake of mystifying 
the family at home. Two bits of paper on 
the extended forefingers become 

"Two little blackbirds sitting on a hill. 
One named Jack and the other named Jill," 

and at the admonitions 

*Tly away, Jack! Fly away, Jill! 
Come again, Jack! Come again, Jill!" 



Kindergarten Activities. 131 

the birds, in a surprising manner, do ex- 
actly as they are bidden. The moduH oper- 
andi is simple. At tlie commands in the 
third line, the forefingers are raised in turn 
high in the air, and while there the middle 
fingers (with no papers on them) are 
quickly extended in their stead and l^rought 
down to view, so that no "little birds" ap- 
pear after having l)een ordered to ''fly 
awav. " At the commands in the fourth line, 
the middle fingers are raised, and the fore- 
fingers quickly substituted for them, so that 
the "little birds" reappear as the fingers ai'e 
brought down after the order, "come 
again. ' ' 

We also at times, armed with a regular 
school pointer take turns at finding in the 
room red, blue, yellow, iron, wood, glass, or 
metal objects. This leads to talks about 
similar objects seen at home or out of doors. 

Add to these resources the many attrac- 
tive finger plays, and it would seem that 
there was material enough and to spare to 
make use of at these times. In addition, 
howevei', we have used many songs, rhymes, 
and verses, teaching the 'children, a little at 



132 Kinderfjdftf II Actiritlcs. 

a time, bits of ''Mother Goose" and other 
nursery classics. From Miss Poulsson's 
"In the Child's World," we have made good 
use of the "Johnny-cake Story," "The Tree 
of the Forest," and other tales. KSometimes 
we have readings from children's hooks of 
poetry, or one group surreptitiously learns a 
song or a finger play that the other groups 
do not know, in order to overwhelm them 
with surprise at some dramatic moment. 

Beside all this, we make a point of taking 
advantage of the oft-presented opportunity 
to learn certain needed lessons in self-con- 
trol. While we are playing The Knights 
and hearing stories of brave deeds, we find 
it good to practice sitting absolutely still 
sometimes in a finely stern attitude, with 
folded arms, while we wait for the others, 
just to show them that we can do so. This 
practice is kept up at intervals during the 
rest of the year for the sake of what will be 
required in school, church, and other antici- 
pated situations. 

By providing systematically for these 
short and too often wasted periods of kin- 
dergarten time, the teacher will be able to 



Kindergarten Activities. 133 

augment lier work of development more 
than one who has not tried it would tliink 
possible. 

THE END. 



